A Different World Book 1 Working Title
by Carya
Summary: UPDATED & FINISHED! CH12 Pottertwins first year at Hogwarts, as Slytherins, Ginny is in their class too. I hate summaries, too difficult Will be HPHG, DMGW, TROC
1. Chapter 01 ­ The Children who Lived

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Harry Potter - A Different World - Book 1

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Title: Harry Potter - A Different World - Book 1

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Author: Carya Black  


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Author Email: webmaster @ caryablack.de   


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Author's Homepage: http:// www. caryablack.de (still under construction)

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Category: AU, General, Romance

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Pairings: will be HP/HG, DM/GW, TMR/OC  


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Rating: PG-13 (might change to R later (Book 3 and up))  


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Disclaimer and Warnings: Carya Black and the plot belong to me, the rest belongs to JKR. I do not make any money with this. It's just a story written from one fan for all the others to read. I got some Ideas from other stories as well. They will be mentioned in the following disclaimers, so please don't flame me. I know whom they belong to and respect the ideas of other authors. I only use them because I loved them! Sometimes I had to copy the original text and alter it slightly to fit into my storyline. Although some parts are copied from the original books, most times they have slight but in many cases very important alterations to fit the story so please don't skip them or you won't understand !! 

Please don't get mad at me if you find something from the books *apologetic smile*. Harry and Carya might get slight Mary-Sues but I need this for my story, so don't flame me. Flames will only be used to heat my room and to roast marshmallows *evilgrin*.

English is NOT my native language (I'm German). So please forgive my mistakes in grammar, structure and such. 

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Notes: Since this is an AU fic some things are different. Ginny is the same age as Harry and Carya. Ron is almost a year older but hadn't been able to attend Hogwarts earlier. Snape behaves different sometimes too. I also will be switching positions of book two and three because I need the kids to be older when the Chamber of Secrets is opened. Perhaps there will be even more changes, but I don't know yet (not everything, just a bit). 

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Summary: Basically the twins first year at Hogwarts, with slight alterations like them being Slytherins, Ginny being the same age as them and Ron being almost one year older but in the same class. Ron's a git here (I don't dislike Ron that much but I need him to be the bad-boy here *evilgrin*)

~...~ = Parseltongue

/.../ = Telepathy between Harry & Carya *sorry, had to mention it before, so you don' get confused*

the text is in italics

' ... ' = thoughts

  
~*~*~ ... ~*~*~ = Flashback or changing POV

Chapter 01 - The Children who Lived

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* Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had two small children, but they had never even seen them. These kids were another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with children like that.

When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.

None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar -- a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realise what he had seen -- then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive -- no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and

put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes -- the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt -- these people were obviously collecting for something... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.

Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open- mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.

He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.

"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard yes, their kids, Harry and Carya"

Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking... no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold. Okay, Carya was an unusual name, but he absolutely couldn't remember if the Potters he thought about even had a daughter. There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her -- if he'd had a sister like that... but all the same, those people in cloaks...

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.

"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"

And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.

Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw -- and it didn't improve his mood -- was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.

"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly. The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behaviour? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.

Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:

"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going

to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"

"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early -- it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."

Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...

Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er -- Petunia, dear -- you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.

"No," she said sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."

"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.

"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."

Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son -- he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.

"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"

"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me. And their daughter. Carya, strange name, isn't it?."

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."

He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of -- well, he didn't think he could bear it.

The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were

involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind.... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on -- he yawned and turned over -- it couldn't affect them....

How very wrong he was.

Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.

Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."

He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again -- the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he

spoke to it.

"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"My dear Professor, I 've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."

"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.

"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no -- even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars.... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent -- I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."

"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."

"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"

"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"

"A what?"

"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of"

"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"

"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense -- for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name.

"I know you haven 't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."

"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."

"Only because you're too -- well -- noble to use them."

"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.

"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are -- are -- that they're -- dead. "

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.

"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.

Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's kids, Harry and Carya. But – he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy and girl. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill the Potter twins, Voldemort's power somehow broke -- and that's why he's gone.

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

"It's -- it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill two little kids? It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry and Carya survive?"

"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"

"I've come to bring Harry and his sister to their aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now."

"You don't mean -- you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore -- you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son -- I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. The Potter twins come and live here!"

"It's the best place for them," said Dumbledore firmly. "Their aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to them when they're older. I've written them a letter."

"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand them! They'll be famous – a legend -- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as the Potter-Twins day in the future -- there will be books written about Harry and Carya -- every child in our world will know their names!"

"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any child's head. Famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off they'll be, growing up away from all that until they're ready to take it?"

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes -- yes, you're right, of course. But how are the children getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry and Carya underneath it.

"Hagrid's bringing them."

"You think it -- wise -- to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"

I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.

"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to -- what was that?"

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.

If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild – long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding two bundles of blankets.

"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"

"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got them, sir."

"No problems, were there?"

"No, sir -- house was almost destroyed, but I got them out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. Harry fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol, though I think Carya's still awake."

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundles of blankets. Inside, just visible, were a baby boy, fast asleep and a baby girl, still slightly awake. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.

"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever. Carya seems to have the same scar on her collarbone."

"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"

"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well -- give them here, Hagrid -- we'd better get this over with."

Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.

"Could I -- could I say good-bye to them, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. After that he repeated the procedure with Carya who let out a sleepy giggle. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.

"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"

"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it -- Lily an' James dead -- an' poor little Harry an' Carya off ter live with Muggles -"

"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry and Carya gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundles; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."

"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall -- Professor Dumbledore, sir."

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.

"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundles of blankets on the step of number four.

"Good luck, Harry and Carya," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Carya had finally fallen asleep and Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and they slept on, not knowing they were special, not knowing they were famous, not knowing they would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles. They couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry and Carya Potter -- the children who lived!"_ *_

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	2. Chapter 02 The Birthday or Weird Discov...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book. Yes I KNOW the Dursley's are completely AU here but didn't I say this IS an AU fic? I believe I did ^_^. I really don't like the Dursley's that much. They just fit into this story like that.

Added 2006-12-17: If you have to critisize something then at least leave your emailaddress so it can be discussed. Anonymous reviewers will be ignored unless the have something constructive to say !!

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**Chapter 02 – The Birthday**

When Petunia Dursley opened the front door the morning after Halloween 1981 she nearly dropped the bottles she was carrying. On the front step of number four, Privet Drive were two babies wrapped in blankets. Tugged into one of the blankets was a letter. As soon as Petunia spotted the seal on the back of the letter she knew who those kids had to be - her niece and nephew, Carya and Harry Potter.

"Vernon! Please come here quickly," she shouted.

"What's wrong, Petunia, dear? What ...," he began but stopped when he saw her holding two bundles that were wrapped in blankets.

Petunia and Vernon Dursley had never been fond of magic. To tell the truth they hated it and thought of wizards and witches as unnatural freaks – until now that is. Petunia had always wanted at least one daughter but girls were rare in Vernon's family. And a brother for Dudley wouldn't be that bad too, so he wouldn't get lonely.

"What do you think, Vernon? Perhaps we should really take them in. Read the letter. Lily and her husband, they ... they were murdered. I mean, these kids aren't at fault. It wasn't their decision to be what they are ...," she rambled while Vernon picked up the parchment.

"You're right dear. And since your parents have left over 5 years ago we apparently are their last relatives. I'm worried about that magic thing but if you wish we will keep them and raise them as if they were ours," he told his wife.

Both Dursley's couldn't help but think that Harry and Carya were not responsible for what or who they were and therefore they decided to take them in and raise them as their own. Vernon got the spare bedroom ready for them and the Dursley's treated the twins like they did with their own son Dudley.

On the outside of number four, Privet Drive nothing seemed to have changed at all since that fateful Halloween night nearly 10 years ago. But on the inside the changes became pretty obvious. All over the place were pictures of Dudley, Harry and Carya.

One time on their first bikes, their first attempt on walking or Petunia hugging each of them. They all had quite good marks at school because they knew how to share the work between them and how to get homework perfect without losing all day. And their "parents" gave them everything they wanted.

The schoolyear of 1991 was finally over and the three children were glad about having summer holidays. After summer they planed to attend secondary school. Vernon had suggested Smeltings, his old school, but the kids were undecided.

The twins had gotten an invitation from Eton and Dudley's grades were good enough that he could easily join them. But right then they didn't worry about secondary schools or anything like that. They had planned to have fun until they had to make a decision.

The days were mostly spent outside with friends, on their bikes or simply in the park. When Harry, Carya and Dudley were in the park there were always lots of kids on the playground. The little ones knew they were safe from the bullies as long as the 'Terrible Trio' was there.

No one dared to mess with them and anyone who was above fifteen didn't care about the little kids playground. In the middle of July the topic 'schools' appeared for the first time since end of term. Carya was the one to start with it.

"You know? In September we will be just like those kiddies. We'll be the new 'Firsties' then. I really do hope the older ones don't treat them like the First Years at primary were always treated," she mused.

"You're right. I've heard that at Stonewall Highschool the new boys are stuck into the toilet with their head," Dudley told them shuddering.

"That's a gruesome mental image. But I don't think something like that happens at Smeltings or Eton. We're most likely be treated as outsiders until we have proven ourselves there. But I don't think that the younger students are violated there," Harry said.

"You know what? I'm hungry. We should head home and see what delicious lunch Aunt Petunia is making today," the grinning girl told the boys.

"Right, come on, who's first gets the desserts!" Harry exclaimed.

They ran home as fast as they could. Carya won - she would get three desserts that day. Vanilla ice-cream with strawberries. But Harry and Dudley were pleading with her so much that she declared their race nullified if they went shopping with her the next day.

The boys both agreed. With any other girl they probably would've declined but Carya never took so much time for shopping than other girls her age. Although she bought just as much but her methods were more efficient.

A few days late they were told that Mrs. Figg their old babysitter had broken her leg. Dominic Rogers, the biggest bully in their immediate neighbourhood had knocked her down when he drove on the sidewalk with his mountain-bike. She was a nice old lady and the three children liked her despite her many cats and her house smelling oddly like cabbage.

Harry, Carya and Dudley decided to visit her within the next week. Carya would bake some cookies with Harry's help (well, he would eat most cookies himself but Carya always made enough) and Dudley would go before they went over and get some fresh flowers for Mrs. Figg.

On a Friday, July 19th 1991, they were visiting old Mrs. Figg at Privet Drive No.8. She was slightly surprised to see them at her door but let them in anyway. When Dudley gave her the flowers and the twins handed her the cookies she invited them to stay a bit.

The woman went to the kitchen to fetch some tea and Carya insisted on helping her. When they went back to the living room the old lady tripped over one of her numerous cats but was caught in Harry's arms and safely led to the sofa.

The girl and Dudley finished setting up the coffee table and Harry fetched the tea from the kitchen. The kids were finally told Mrs. Figg's first name.

"Thank you, dears," she said and smiled kindly at them.

"No problem, Mrs. Figg," said Dudley and the twins answered their typical "You're welcome;" before sitting down.

"There's no need to be so formal children. You may call me Arabella if you like," she told them and took a cookie, "Oh, these are delicious. Did you make them or did Petunia?" Arabella inquired.

"Eh, I made them and Harry helped," Carya admitted and blushed a bit since she wasn't used to someone praising her cooking. Aunt Petunia only said it was adequate or sometimes good but she'd never said it was delicious.

"Well dear, you'll certainly make a perfect house-wife one day. At least you won't have to stick to that junk food the young people are consuming today," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

Carya's blush deepened and the two boys started snickering.

"perhaps you should teach Harry and Dudley a bit so that they can live on their own too?" the woman suggested.

Now Carya was giggling while the boys just looked dumbstruck. A second later all four of them were laughing. It was a nice afternoon and Mrs. Figg thanked the three of them for visiting her. It had been the best afternoon they had ever spent at Privet Drive No.8 and when Arabella told Petunia the next day how well mannered and behaved the three kids were she was beaming with pride.

As the end of July 1991 approached Vernon began to get nervous and Petunia got very quiet around the twins with each day passing. Of course this didn't go unnoticed by the twins and Dudley. The were wondering what was wrong most of the time but almost always got distracted easily.

After a long talk with Vernon the Dursley's finally decided to tell Harry and Carya the whole truth of what and who they really were. It was in the early evening of July 30th, 1991 when the twins were called down from their bedroom (which they still shared and refused to change that because they just loved it that way *gg*, no not a sister/brother lovestory) to the living room.

"Harry, Carya, we need to tell you something really important," said Uncle Vernon. "I'm sure you remember we told you that your parents had been murdered?"

When both children nodded with sad looks on their faces Petunia helped Vernon and continued.

"I think you two have already realised that you're special in some way, haven't you?" she asked them.

They nodded again because they suddenly remembered a few occasions when they'd done some things which really weren't considered "normal" at all. For example when they were running from a furious neighbour who believed they had trampled over his precious flowers they'd ended up in they backyard of number four. Or accidentally setting free that boa constrictor in the zoo on Dudley's 6th birthday.

~*~*~ Flashback - Dudley's 6th birthday ~*~*~

It was Dudley's 6th birthday and it was a beautiful sunny day. They Dursley's were taking their son, nephew and niece to the London Zoo. The children were excited about that. There was so much to see. The bears, elephants, monkeys and all the other animals in there. But what caught the kids attention the most was the reptile house.

"What do you think Carya? Do you want to see the bigger or the smaller snakes? I want the big ones. Those that can squeeze someone to death," Dudley said grinning.

Carya only smirked at him. "I bet you'd like to see those. I for one prefer the poisonous ones. Most of them are absolutely beautiful but also very dangerous," she continued with an even wider smirk. Harry just listened to their antics while the people around them looked horrified.

All three of them were slightly disappointed when they finally got to see the snakes. The most interesting was a huge boa constrictor but she was apparently sleeping. She opened her eyes when some other visitors knock against her glass window. Once those people left Carya began talking to her quietly. Harry translated for Dudley. Dudley just loved seeing them talking to snakes. Just like they had done with that tiny brown garden snake the week before.

"I'm sorry," said Carya. "They are just stupid humans, you know? They don't know what it's like to be stuck in a place like this. Where are you from by the way?" she continued.

The snake actually raised her head and kind of pointed to a small sign next to her. It read:

**_Boa Constrictor, Brazil._**

**_This specimen was bred in the zoo._**

"So you've never been there, hmm? I wish I could help you," she mumbled but didn't get any further as she was roughly shoved aside by a group of strangers who had seen the snake moving.

Harry and Dudley tried to help her up while she was busy glaring at the people and desperately wishing to pay them back. When she heard someone scream in front of her and her brother and cousin laughing behind her she snapped out of it. Carya saw that the glass window which had separated the snake from the visitors had vanished into thin air. The snake lazily slithered out of her prison and flicked her long body towards the group of people that in panic tried to get out of the reptile house.

Harry and Carya could hear her talk again. "Thanksss, my friendssss! Brazzzil, here I come!" the snake hissed and slithered outside.

The twins told Dudley and he joined their laughs. Soon they were the only ones left in this part of the zoo. Petunia and Vernon were quite worried when they heard about a snake being loose in the reptile house but calmed down when the saw three laughing children slowly walk towards them.

"Thank god, you're safe! You had us so worried," whimpered Aunt Petunia and gathered them into a big hug. Even Uncle Vernon looked elated that they were positively unharmed.

Dudley was happy. This had been the best birthday present ever. It was already past midnight when the three kids stopped talking about it.

~*~*~ End Flashback - Dudley's 6th birthday ~*~*~

Dudley had laughed his head of about all the people who fled from the reptile house because he knew that the twins somehow understood what snakes were saying. They'd found out a week or so ago when their were playing in the backyard and a garden snake slithered towards them hissing but only Dudley knew of this. The twins wouldn't let that animal harm him, they always protected him. Not that he needed any protection, all three of them were kind of leaders in school and no one dared to annoy or cross them. At those memories a small smile appeared on their faces.

"What we want to tell you is that you're in fact a wizard and a witch just like your parents were," said Vernon seriously.

The two children looked dumbstruck. That was impossible, wasn't it? There was no such thing as magic or was it? It certainly would explain some of those weird incidents that only happened to them and the strange dreams they had sometimes.

It was Carya who asked: "But if we are ... er ... wizards why could our parents not defend themselves against their murderer? What happened then?"

"It's true that they were murdered but not in any way you could imagine right now. An evil dark wizard went after you and your parents and tried to kill the whole Potter family. No one knows how the two of you have survived that night but you did and you're famous for that in your world. I'm sure that sometime soon – perhaps even tomorrow - you will receive your acceptance letter from school. Then everything will be explained," Aunt Petunia said.

"I really hope that you're not angry with us for not telling you sooner. It's just ... we don't really like magic that much ... but that has nothing to do with you. We love you as much as Dudley. You have to believe that ..." she continued her rambling and was trying to apologise but Harry and Carya already understood. They were really smart and understanding for their age.

"Er, ... it's okay Aunt Petunia, really, but what did you mean with 'acceptance letter'?" Harry asked confused.

"It's a letter sent out to those who are chosen to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I only know of this because my sister Lily, your mother, got the same letter around her eleventh birthday, too. I know that you still have some questions but it is pretty late and you should already be in bed by now. We'll talk more tomorrow, okay?"

When the twins nodded, they said good night and then went to bed but they were too confused and excited to fall asleep immediately. When they woke up again it was July 31st – their eleventh birthday. After throwing pillows at each other for about ten minutes Carya and Harry got ready for breakfast. On the kitchen table were two piles of presents waiting for them. The rest of the family stood around the table wishing them a Happy Birthday although Dudley looked as if he would fall asleep every second.

Carya got many books, some sweets and the brand new computer she had wanted. Harry got a Playstation 2 with six games and some books, too. They always wanted books as presents, because the really loved to read. Both of them got another present which was an envelope that contained about 200 pounds which they should exchange into wizard money once they got to the wizarding bank Aunt Petunia had told them about.

Half an hour later they had nearly finished breakfast when they heard that the mail had arrived. Harry immediately went and collected it. There were some bills and advertising, a postcard from Aunt Marge and another strange letter. The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. On the backside of the letter was a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. The addresses read:

**_Mr. H. Potter and Ms. C. Potter_**

**_The Smaller Shared Bedroom_**

**_4 Privet Drive_**

**_Little Whinging_**

**_Surrey_**

Harry was very excited and ran back into the kitchen showing the letter to his twin, aunt, cousin and uncle.

"Go on, read it, it's yours!" said Aunt Petunia. And they read them:

**_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_**

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr. Potter, dear Ms. Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall,_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Inside the envelope was an additional piece of parchment they hadn't noticed before. It read:

_Please be ready to go to Diagon Alley on August 1st. One of the Hogwarts Professors will collect you from home and take you to London so that you can buy your school supplies. Enclosed in this letter you will also find the keys to your Gringotts vaults._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore,_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts_

Both children were grinning widely by now. It had been hard to believe yesterday evening that they were a wizard and witch but now it hit them full force – it was really true. And even though the Dursley's didn't like magic, at this moment they were really proud of the twins.

So at the end of the holidays Dudley would go to Smeltings – Vernon's old school – while Carya and Harry would go to Hogwarts but both would tell their few friends that they were going to attend a small private boarding school somewhere in Scotland. After lunch the family visited the zoo where Harry and Carya much to Dudley's amazement had a little chat with the snakes in the reptile house – of course the twins translated for Dudley when he wanted to know what they were saying.

After that the children went to the cinema while Vernon and Petunia took a long walk in the park. They were watching 'Defending Your Life (Romance / Comedy)' _Summary: Yuppie Daniel Miller is killed in a car accident and goes to Judgement City, a waiting room for the afterlife. During the day, he must prove in a courtroom-style process that he successfully overcame his fears (a hard task, given the pitiful life we are shown); at night, he falls in love with Julia, the only other young person in town. Nights are a time of hedonistic pleasure, since you can (for instance) eat all you want without getting fat_. In the evening they had dinner at an expensive looking restaurant and the kids were allowed to order whatever they wanted to have. This night Harry and Carya voluntarily went to bed early. They were both tired but excited of what would happen the following day, too.

In the morning they woke up early and decided to make breakfast for the family (yes, they are a bit spoiled but know how to cook quite well). They had barely finished eating breakfast when there was a sharp knock on the front door. On the outside stood a tall man with obsidian eyes, shoulder-length black hair and he was entirely clad in black clothes. As soon as Carya and Harry heard him introduce himself to Uncle Vernon as Professor Severus Snape in a cold sarcastic tone they knew in an instant that this was someone not to mess with ever. When he asked if they were ready to go – he seemed very impatient, too – they said "Yes, Sir!" in unison and stepped outside.

The kids didn't see a car so they just gave the Professor a questioning glance. He of course noticed this immediately, pulled a colourful woollen sock with little christmas trees on it out of his pocket and told them what to do.

"This" he said "is a portkey. You have to hold onto it and don't let go!"

Both children grabbed a tip of the sock and as soon as Snape had muttered something under his breath. They felt a nauseating jerk behind their navel. The next thing Carya and Harry knew was that they stood or, in Harry's case, lay on the floor in a small pub where everyone stared at them with wide eyes. Before Snape could say something Harry got up and the Professor led them to the back entrance of said pub which was called "The Leaky Cauldron".

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	3. Chapter 03 Diagon Alley or Books, Wands...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, the idea with the raven and snake pet-thing is from someone else I put it in here as soon as I find out whom to give credit for that.

I hope there aren't too many mistakes since the story isn't Beta-read yet and English was and still is a foreign language for me but I'm trying. ^_^

****

Chapter 03 - Diagon Alley

Thanks to Snape they hadn't had to stay in there. Harry and Carya had felt very uncomfortable under those stares. Snape was relieved and a bit surprised that the Potter twins didn't ask him stupid questions like he had them expected to do. In fact they hadn't asked any questions at all, yet. He explained where they would go and in which order they would do so. 

First they went to Gringotts here the twins exchanged their muggle money (they got thirty-nine Galleons, one Sickel and fourteen Knuts for their 200 pounds [_I used the exchange information from the german version of 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them'_]). 

Then they were brought to their vaults to get out some money for school supplies but Carya found something else in her vault. It was a small leather bound book what seemed to be a diary of sort. The twins took out the supplies lists and looked through them. They were supposed to have:

**__**

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

_ ****_

UNIFORM

__

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

****

COURSE BOOKS

__

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

'_The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_ '_ by Miranda Goshawk_

'_A History of Magic_'_ by Bathilda Bagshot_

'_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration_'_ by Emetic Switch_

'_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_'_ by Phyllida Spore_

'_Magical Drafts and Potions_'_ by Arsenius Jigger_

'_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_'_ by Newt Scamander_

'_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_'_ by Quentin Trimble_

****

OTHER EQUIPMENT

__

1 wand 

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope set

1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS

They left Gringotts and got their cauldrons, potions supplies then went to Madam Malkin's to buy their robes. After that Harry and Carya were led to Flourish and Blotts to get their books. Carya got quite an amount of additional books containing some about Defense against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Advanced Transfiguration, Potions and '_Hexes & Curses: A Self Studying Guide'_ by Elmar Nexus because she could be quite a bookworm sometimes. 

(_A/N: what she didn't know was that the potions book she had bought was written by Slytherin himself, because it only read Potions on the cover and she didn't bother find an author since the potions inside looked interesting enough to her *evilgrin*)_

Harry got some additional books too but he bought '_Quidditch through the Ages'_ by Kennilworthy Whisp and '_Hogwarts: A History'_ along with some other books about Wizarding Society, Charms and Theory of Magic although the latter wouldn't be on the curriculum until third year. 

They already had decided to share their books because this way they could buy more with the same amount of money. When they'd finished there Snape brought them to Ollivander's to purchase their wands.

They went to a small and shabby looking shop. The sign above the door read **_Ollivander's: Makers of Fine wands since 382 B.C_**_._ There was only one single wand lying on a faded looking cushion that once might have been of crimson colour. A bell rang somewhere in the back of they shop as they stepped inside. Harry and Carya felt strange. Just as if they had entered a very strict library like the one in Little Whining. 

The twins swallowed every single question they might have wanted to ask right now and resolved to stare at the thousands of narrow boxes that were piled on nearly endless shelves. They were piled up neatly from the floor up to the ceiling. The whole room was dusty and tingled with magic.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped and Carya stiffened a bit though her face barely showed any emotions right now.

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the shady darkness of the shop.

"Er, ... hello," Harry said awkwardly while his twin remained quiet. These were the first signs of emotion Snape noticed within the twins.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry and Carya Potter." It wasn't a real question. It was more of a statement. "You have your mother's eyes," he said to Harry and then continued speaking to both of them: "It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." 

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to them. Those silvery eyes were a bit unnerving but the twins just stared back.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it -- it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where..."

Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger. Carya involuntarily took a small step backwards at this. She didn't like that kind of attention and was elated that her scar was hidden beneath her clothes.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands... well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do...."

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Severus Snape.

"Severus Snape! How nice to see you again.... Ash, twelve inches, dragon heartstrings, wasn't it?"

"It is, yes," said Snape.

"Well, now -- Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er -- well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Harry suddenly relaxed that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try --"

Harry tried -- but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.

"No, no -here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere -- I wonder, now - - yes, why not -- unusual combination -- holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

As soon as Harry took the wand he felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of green and silver sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well... how curious... how very curious... "

He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious... curious..

"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather -- just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you and your sister those scars."

Harry swallowed and Carya looked annoyed along with Snape.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember.... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter.... After all, He-

Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things -- terrible, yes, but great." Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. Now it was Carya's turn to get a wand and Mr. Ollivander asked her which hand was her wand hand. 

"Er... actually I can use both hands with everything. So I would say that I'm ambidextrous," Carya replied. 

At this both Mr. Ollivander raised his eyebrows and Professor Snape looked really curious. Not many wizards or witches were ambidextrous. The only one Severus Snape could think of would have been the Dark Lord himself. So why was this girl?

Ollivander frowned a bit and put the boxes he had just taken back to their shelves. He then fetched some others from the back of the shop to let Carya try them out. Just like Harry she needed quite some attempts to finally find a matching wand. 

After waving wands made from at least twelve different wood types and all three normally used wand cores she ended up with an eleven and a half inches Yew wand with a core made of a single phoenix feather and powdered basilisk fangs. At this Snape raised an eyebrow but said nothing. 

'Basilisk fangs? In Potters wand?? Something has to be wrong here...' he thought. 

They paid nine gold Galleons each for their wands, and Snape hurried them out of Mr. Ollivander's shop. After leaving the shop they asked if they were allowed to buy a pet. It was the first question they directed at Snape and surprisingly he said yes without complaint. 

He even didn't say a thing when they purchased a pair of coal black ravens. But he was definitely confused and astonished when Harry and Carya Potter of all people went to buy themselves a small snake each. Even the shopkeeper gave them curious looks. They were the 'Children-who-lived' after all.

Carya got an emerald green and Harry a greenish-blue snake. The colour of their new pets matched the eye colour of the twins. Although Snape was careful not to mention his thoughts and musings he couldn't deny that he was very curious about them purchasing snakes. 

After they'd finished their shopping they were brought back home by portkey. They said thanks to Snape and he was gone within a heartbeat.

As soon as Snape was back at Hogwarts he went down to his private chambers and reflected the day. He had expected the Potter children to be horribly spoiled which they actually seemed to be but they weren't as snobby as others. They hadn't asked all those stupid questions like all muggle-born children did when the were taken to go shopping. 

When they hadn't asked a single questions besides wanting to buy a pet he had thought that they were arrogant in believing they didn't need to ask any questions about anything. But then he had seen what kind of books they bought. There had been some about Wizard Society and History books, too and to his surprise even some about potions, hexes and curses. 

'Not very Gryffindor-like ...,' he mused. 'Perhaps they aren't as horrible as their annoying father and his sidekicks had been. Perhaps they might a bit like Lily who has always been polite even towards some Slytherins. I hope they don't turn out like James Potter and his bunch...'

Carya and Harry lay awake that night because they couldn't sleep. So they talked with each other, to their new snakes which they'd named Niamh (Harry's snake was a female) and Salazar (Carya's snake, a male one) and they started to read through their new books. 

The two raven's got names too. The twins settled on Phobos and Deimos as their names. Within the remaining four weeks of the holidays they read each book they had bought in Diagon alley at least once. They already had memorised many potions, charms, hexes, curses and such. 

It was quite exciting for them and soon they knew almost everything important from their course books by heart. Carya was a bit disappointed that she wasn't allowed to practise the hexes and curses she'd found in one of the books.

She gladly would've liked to test them on Dominic Rogers bull-dog. That animal had already bitten three persons and was still running around without a leash. But she was able to do something else. She knew that Dominic's dog always drank from the birds fountain at Magnolia Crescent No.5 and decided to prank him.

The girl told Harry and Dudley and they were delighted. Together an away from Petunia's eyes they brew a simple colouring potion which they poured into the fountain just before they could spot Dominic and his dreadful pet.

As always he drank from the fountain and in an instant the dogs fur was a bright pink. The three children had a hard time not to laugh because that would have given their hiding place away but it was a funny sight to see.

No one ever found out who had done that to the dog and once the bull-dog and it's owner were gone Carya poured the counter potion into the fountain. They wouldn't want to be responsible for loads of unnaturally pink birds around Surrey.

But one thing was for sure. The dog never again drank from the fountain and Dominic had to give the animal away when it tried to bit a police-officer. When Petunia heard about the pink-dog-incident she immediately suspected the twins and her son but since she had no proof she didn't mention it.

Petunia had suspected them because their father and his friends had once played a similar prank on her when they had visited Lily during the summer holidays. These days when she looked hard enough she could see a great deal of her sister in the twins.

Soon the holidays came to an end. Dudley would leave for Smeltings and the twins would go to Hogwarts. As much as the children were excited about their departure Petunia was sad. The house would seem quite empty with all her children gone.

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya

Claudia - Thx ^_^ Carya is an original character created by myself. She actually represent me *grin*. You can see a picture of her in Hogwarts clothes at: http: //www.caryablack.de/carya.htm 

She is only based on myself and how I'd like to look.


	4. Chapter 04 The Hogwarts Express or A Jo...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, The _REPELLO_ - Charm is my invention ^_^, Ron's a git in this fic by the way

A/N: Sorry for the delay but I HAVE to work and I'm kind of stuck with a few plot problems right now but it'll work out ^_^. Enjoy the chapter. I love this chapter *grin*. All of you who love Ron PLEASE don't flame me. It's nothing personal ;)

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Chapter 04 – The Hogwarts Express

Finally on September 1st Uncle Vernon drove them to Kings Cross Station in London. Since they had read about Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters they didn't need any help to find the train. They were very early with about two hours to spare - the train would leave at eleven o'clock and it was only a few minutes past nine - and therefore had no problem to find a nice and empty compartment near the back of the train. 

The twins spent the time reading in their new books about transfiguration and in Carya's case potions. Her mothers diary was safely stored in her trunk. The twins took their time and watched everyone else get onto the train. They were glad that they'd gotten here so early. It was really full on the platform and it was quite amusing to watch some of them. 

Crying first years, overprotective parents and annoyed older students. Soon the train started to leave and for about half an hour they luckily stayed alone in their compartment. Then the door slid open and a pale blonde boy looked inside.

"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the empty seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full." 

Carya didn't even bother to look up from her book and just shook her head. She didn't want to appear unpolite but she had found an interesting hex in her book and wanted to know how to do it properly. Little did she know that exactly this one would come in handy today. Harry shook his head too and the boy sat down. 

He then introduced himself: "Hello, I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he said and extended his hand towards Harry.

Carya raised an eyebrow and looked curiously at the new occupant of their compartment. She had read about the Malfoy's. They were assumed to be strongly involved with the Dark Lord but it had never been proven. Harry shook the hand Draco extended and began introducing them. 

"I' Harry. Harry Potter and this is my twin-sister Carya." 

Draco's eyes widened and for a brief moment his gaze flickered up to Harry's scar and then over to Carya but then he smiled and said: "Hi Harry, Carya. It's nice to meet you." 

Carya's reply from behind her spellbook sounded like »same here«. 

When the trolley came by they each bought a bit of everything the witch had to offer and soon the boys started talking about Quidditch. Sometimes Carya threw in a comment or she told the boys about a particular interesting hex or curse she had just found. Draco was surprised that Carya Potter read about hexes and curses but he wisely kept quiet about that. 

Meanwhile they were happily eating what they had bought and Harry was the first to get a nasty tasting Bertie Botts Bean. He had a golden-brown bean and it tasted like ear-wax. Harry spit it out immediately. His sister and their new friend laughed at him and he just made a face. 

Draco got a grass flavoured one once but only Carya was lucky. She didn't have even one nasty flavoured bean. Harry first card from the chocolate frogs was Dumbledore. He decided to collect them. The boys went back to talking and Carya once again immersed herself into her book.

Much later that day the compartment door opened again and a tall boy with red hair and hand-me-down robes walked in: "They say that Harry and Carya Potter are in this compartment." 

He looked around, sneered at Malfoy and looked at Harry and Carya for a short moment before continuing, "So it's true. The Potter twins are on their way to Hogwarts. I'm Ron Weasley by the way. You two," he said pointing at the twins, "really shouldn't hang out with people like Malfoy. They are the wrong sort." 

While saying this Draco had gotten constantly angrier. But neither he nor Ron had time to say anything else because Harry spoke up: "I assume you must be the RIGHT sort of people then?" Harry replied sarcastically and then spat, "You know what? Get lost Weasel!" 

"And what if I don't want to?" Weasley said while eyeing the pile of sweets lying on the seat besides Carya.

"Then I will hex you from now until easter," Carya said coldly with her wand drawn and aimed at him. But Ron simply started laughing and so Carya did what she said – she hexed Ron. 

"_Repello_!" she shouted and Ron as literally thrown out of the compartment and that almost knocked him out. Draco shut the door.

"Wow, where did you learn that? That was cool," Draco asked impressed.

"It's fairly easy and I've found it in this morning in the book I'm reading right now," Carya stated calmly as if it was nothing special.

"This morning? And you are already that good? Geez, I do so hope that we'll be in the same house, really!" Draco said and masked his nervousness with a slight smirk but Carya noticed anyway. She was quite perceptive for her age.

'Shit, what if they get sorted into Gryffindor like their parents? And I will surely go to Slytherin, just like father. I don't think I want to be on their bad side,' he thought. 

Draco's face must have shown his thought because the twins were suddenly smirking at him. When Draco looked up and blushed their smirks got wider than before.

"What??" Draco asked confused.

Now the twins started laughing and Carya managed to tell him something.

"You know, ... you do look cute ... when you blush like that...," she said between fits of laughter.

Draco did not find this funny and pouted which made them laugh even harder. Soon they had calmed down again and returned to the talks they had before Ron Weasley had interrupted them. For the rest of their journey they were pretty much left alone since a few people had witnessed what happened to Ron Weasley. 

~*~*~ Further down the train ~*~*~

"Have you heard about Ronald Weasley?" "No, what happened?" "He got blown out of a compartment by a curse. They say Carya Potter has done that." "What? A Potter hexing a fellow student? You must be joking!" They occupants said.

Those who were walking down the corridor could hear every word and soon the story was all over the train. At some point Draco Malfoy had made his way into the rumour and no one knew if he had been the one to curse Ron Weasley or if really Carya Potter had done it.

No one went to find out. Those who wanted to be or already were in Slytherin didn't care if a Weasley got hexed, the current and the supposed Ravenclaws silently discussed it, the Hufflepuffs decided to drop the topic and the Gryffindors didn't believe the rumour.

Well the Weasley family did but then again that wasn't really surprising. But they weren't stupid enough to try anything on the train for retaliation. 

~*~*~ End Further down the train ~*~*~

It was already dark outside when the train reached Hogsmeade Station. "Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" called a huge man who introduced himself as Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. C'mon, follow me -- any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

The students followed him down a narrow path. Sometimes you could hear murmured apologies when one of them was stumbling again and accidentally bumped into someone else.

"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here." There was a loud "Oooooh!"

Suddenly the stood at the edge of a great black lake. On the other side at the top of a mountain they could see a huge castle. The windows sparkled like fires in the nightlike sky. And it had many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. 

Harry and Carya were followed into their boat by Draco and a girl with very dark red hair. "She looks a bit like that stupid Weasley git," Draco whispered towards Harry but Carya heard him. 

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat all to himself. "Right then -- FORWARD!"

And the fleet of small boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. No one dared to say a word. It was such an astonishing sight that they all stayed silent as they sailed towards the cliff below the castle above them.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.

They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

They were led up a flight of steps and stopped in front of the huge, Oak front door. After Hagrid knocked, the door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursley's house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry, Carya and Draco could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right - the rest of the school must already be here -- but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.

"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Draco asked Harry.

"No idea, there wasn't anything about it in the book about Hogwarts."

He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked nervous, too. No one was talking much except a girl with bushy brown hair who they would know as Hermione Granger. She was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need. Harry tried hard not to listen to her. 

He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursley's saying that he, Carya and Dudley had accidentally broken the windows of the teachers lounge while playing soccer outside. He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back. 

A glance over to his sister told him that she wasn't any better. Well, to everyone else she seemed totally calm but he knew her. She was biting her bottom lip slightly and that meant she was really nervous about a problem or anything else.

The girl caught his glance and tried to smile reassuringly at her brother but she only succeeded halfway because then something happened that made them jump about a foot in the air -- several people behind Harry screamed.

"What the --?"

He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance --"

"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?"

A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.

Nobody answered.

"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"

A few people nodded mutely.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."

Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to jelly, Harry got into line behind Draco, with Carya behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. 

These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. 

The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. 

He heard a tall blonde girl whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History." 

Carya just rolled her eyes, they had read about that too but didn't show off like the other girl apparently did. It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.

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Repello = throw back

@anonymous: glad to know you like my story ^_^

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	5. Chapter 05 The Sorting or How the Hell ...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

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Chapter 05 - The Sorting

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. /_Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house_,/ Harry thought and suddenly Carya stared at him. 

Her eyes widened a bit and she tried something. /_Harry? Do you hear me? Did you just think about Aunt Petunia_?/ she thought. Now it was Harry's turn to look surprised but then he nodded and they both started grinning slightly. When Draco looked at them quizzically Harry mouthed 'Tell you later!'

/_Maybe we have to try and get a rabbit out of it_,/ Harry thought. /_Harry, that's ... Don't try and make me laugh tonight. Not until we've figured out how this works, okay? I certainly don't want to look like a fool and I'm sure you wouldn't want to either,_/ Carya told him. Noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, they stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth -- and the hat began to sing:

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"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

your top hats sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong in Gryffindor,

Where dwell the brave at heart,

Their daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You might belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

if you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Those cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on! Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!"

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Draco whispered to Harry. "I'll kill my father, he was being so very secretive about this, damn."

Harry smiled at him and even Carya couldn't suppress a smirk. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than anything they'd imagined. Behind them they could hear Ron Weasley talking about how his twin-brothers had told him they would've to wrestle a troll. At this they just had to snicker a bit. 

It was hilarious. As if anyone would allow the first years to get killed on their first evening at school. They just couldn't believe that anyone would fall for THAT. But then again, Ron Weasley seemed to be the type. Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. 

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "**Hannah Abbott**!"

A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause -- "**HUFFLEPUFF**!" shouted the hat. 

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"**Susan Bones**!" 

"**HUFFLEPUFF**!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.

"**Terry Boot**!" 

"**RAVENCLAW**!" The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them. 

"**Mandy Brocklehurst**" went to Ravenclaw too.

But then "**Lavender Brown**" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers. 

"**Millicent Bulstrode**"

"**GRYFFINDOR**!"

"**Vincent Crabbe**!" 

"**SLYTHERIN**!"

"**Justin Finch-Fletchley**!" 

"**HUFFLEPUFF**!"

Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. 

"**Seamus Finnigan**," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a **GRYFFINDOR**.

"**Gregory Goyle**!" 

"**SLYTHERIN**!"

"**Hermione Granger**!" Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. 

"_Ah, very clever one you are. And you don't mind hard work, yes, there's only one place for you -_ **RAVENCLAW**!" shouted the hat. 

When "**Neville Longbottom**", was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a very long time to decide with Neville. 

When it finally shouted, "**GRYFFINDOR**," Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to the next student. 

"**Morag MacDougal**." 

"**RAVENCLAW**!"

"**Ernie McMillan**!" 

"**HUFFLEPUFF**!"

"**Draco Malfoy**!" Draco swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once. 

The hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "**SLYTHERIN**!" 

Draco Malfoy went to join his fellow housemates, looking pleased with himself. There weren't many people left now. He suddenly looked uncertain at the twins. The boy was sure they would be in Gryffindor like their parents had been.

His father had told them about that time. Although he had already been a third year when Potter, Evans, Black, Lupin and Snape had started Hogwarts he always knew what was going on. Lucius Malfoy had told him to watch the twins. 

The elder Malfoy was absolutely sure they would end up in Gryffindor and Draco didn't exactly feel very good then. He wanted them to stay as his friends. They had gotten along so well. Even if his father disapproved of that relationship. 

He wanted to have them in Slytherin but that was unlikely ... if anyone had taken bets, the majority would have laid theirs onto Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.

"**Pansy Parkinson**" 

"**SLYTHERIN**!" 

Then a pair of twin girls, "**Padma Patil**" 

"**RAVENCLAW**!" 

and "**Parvati Patil**" 

"**GRYFFINDOR**!" 

Then finally "**Carya Potter**!" As Carya stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like small hissing fires all over the hall.

"Potter, did she say?"

"The Potters?" 

"_Hmm_," said a little voice inside Carya's head once she had put the head on. "_This is difficult. You have courage, yes, and quite talented and smart too. Oh, interesting - you want to prove yourself, show them what you're able to. Very ambitious and powerful are you, right dear? So, where to put you_?" 

Carya chuckled inside and thought 'That might sum it up, doesn't it. But you find me difficult? Then better wait for my twin brother. He'll be even more interesting I think.' She smirked inwardly and heard the hat chuckling slightly.

"_I know now, yes, it shall be_ **_SLYTHERIN_**!" 

When the hat shouted this there were a few gasps and whispers heard and even more people had shocked looks on their faces; especially the Professors McGonagall and Snape, both for different reasons. But in one point they would've agreed. 

They just couldn't believe that a Potter was actually sorted into Slytherin. While they were wondering about that Carya joined Draco at the Slytherin table and turned to watch the rest of the sorting. McGonagall quickly composed herself and continued. 

Draco was happy. Half of his wish was fulfilled. Only one thing was left. And he hoped that since they were twins they would end up in the same house. Just like the Weasley twins and not like the Patil's who were in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor.

The next to be sorted was of course:

"**Harry Potter**!" Most people were looking at him expectantly now. So Harry was glad when the hat dropped over his eyes. 

"_Oh, the second Potter. Very much like your sister, hmm? Yes, that's obvious. Strong are you and courageous, not a bad mind either_..." 

But Harry cut him short with thinking angrily 'Oh, hurry up, but whatever you decide – just, make sure you put that git Ron Weasley somewhere else than me!' 

"_No need to be rude, dear_," the hat continued, "_Now I think I know where to put you. It certainly has to be_ **_SLYTHERIN_**!" 

Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. When he took off the hat he was greeted with silence. Everyone stared at him as if he had grown a second head. He started to glare at them and slowly began to walk towards the Slytherins. Suddenly there were whispers all over the Great Hall. They accompanied the shocked faces of almost everyone in there. 

If the people had been slightly confused when Carya was sorted into Slytherin then they were outright shocked now. The famous Harry Potter a Slytherin!? Never ever had anyone expected **THAT**. Only Ron Weasley looked a bit as if he might have guessedsince he already had his experiences with the Potters on the train. And everyone who heard about that encounter was shocked. In fact most of them were so shocked that they didn't dare to go near Carya's and Harry's compartment. 

The teachers were speechless, including McGonagall and Snape. Even Dumbledore looked shocked though he did a good job at hiding this. This was unexpected. Everyone had thought that Harry AND Carya would go to Gryffindor just like their parents. Never ever would've anyone imagined that they even might get sorted into Slytherin. That was just not right they thought.

Harry sat down and didn't look up. Dumbledore coughed politely and that brought Professor McGonagall back to reality and the sorting continued. Harry decided to look up again. He could see the High Table properly now. 

At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and then looked away quickly. He seemed unable to look straight at Harry. And there, in the center of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognised him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. 

Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Snape but said Professor just gave him a quizzical look which changed into a scowl and then looked at the sorting once again. 

Right next to Snape was another teacher. He was wearing lilac robes and a matching turban. Said teacher was talking to Snape. Carya noticed her brother staring at the head table and looked into the same direction. That moment the Professor which they would get to know as Professor Quirrell looked straight at them. Suddenly a jolt of pain surged through Harry's and Carya's scars.

Harry absently rubbed his forehead while Carya just flinched a bit. No one seemed to have noticed that but one person did - Snape. He looked from the twins towards Quirrell and back. His expression was absolutely unreadable. 

The only one who didn't seem to mind them being Slytherins at all was Draco. He was grinning madly at the two Potters and almost laughed when Carya and Harry raised an eyebrow each and at the same time too.

'Must be a twin thing. I wish I had siblings like that. Being an only child is quite boring sometimes. And I wonder why they are like this when they've grown up with muggles ...' Draco mused and then turned his attention back to the sorting. 

Now there were only five people left to be sorted. 

"**Dean Thomas**," a boy even taller than Harry, joined the Gryffindor table. 

"**Lisa Turpin**," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. His face was pale green by now. 

Harry smirked and noticed Carya and Draco doing the same. /_Coward_,/ he thought and got an approving reply from his sister. They had agreed to explore this new ability of communication over the next few days. 

And a minute later the hat had shouted, "**GRYFFINDOR**!" Harry was elated that this Weasley wasn't in his house..

The next one was the red haired girl who had shared the boat with Harry, Carya and Draco. It became obvious that Draco's guess had been right when McGonagall called 

"**Virginia Weasley**!" to be sorted. 

"_Ah another Weasley, now you're different from your brothers. Quite ambitious you are. Don't want to stand in their shadows, hmm? Want to be free of their influence in your life? Yes, yes, I know what to do with you_", after a few moments the hat shouted: "**_SLYTHERIN_**!" and again there were quite a few gasps. 

The girl looked a bit unsure when she took off the hat but Carya beckoned her over to the seat on her left. At first Ron and three other boys who looked very much like him went white as snow but then they turned purple and looked as if they wanted to kill someone. 

The teachers looked as if the world had been turned upside down (_A/N: which wasn't that wrong because no one ever had expected to have a Potter or a Weasley in Slytherin since it had never occurred before_). The Potter twins and the youngest of the Weasleys in Slytherin – that was quite a headline. 

Soon Professor McGonagall called "**Blaise Zabini**," who was the last one to be sorted. 

She was made a "**_SLYTHERIN_**!" 

McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away. As soon as they all sat at their respective house tables the feast began. Ginny introduced herself and then she, Carya, Harry and Draco talked. But only after Carya had made it crystal clear that Ginny was truly one of them and that there was nothing wrong with her because of her family name since she and her twin were in Slytherin, too. 

"Hi, I'm Virginia Weasley but please call me Ginny, okay?" the girl introduced herself and Carya took the offered hand. 

Harry nodded but Draco started sneering. That got him a death glare from Carya.

"Draco ...," she started, "is something wrong with you?" 

"No, I only wouldn't have thought that a muggle-lover like Weasley would get into Slytherin," the young Malfoy answered.

Ginny looked hurt and Harry was unsure what to say but Carya's temper had already decided the course of action.

"Draco Malfoy! You're not above others, you know? If you don't stop this childish behaviour I'm going to hex you until you can barely walk, is that clear? I don't make threats Draco, this ...," she paused a moment and then continued in a menacing and quiet voice, "This, my dear friend, is a promise!"

Harry gulped. Carya rarely used such threats. And he worriedly looked at Draco who didn't know what to say next. And when Carya had decided that his time for thinking was over she told him her exact opinion.

"Ginny here was sorted into Slytherin. That means an authority older than thousand years deemed her worthy of being in this house. Who are you that you dare the sorting hats decision, eh? Harry and I are Slytherins too, in case you haven't noticed. Both our parents have been Gryffindors.

As far as I know we are the first Potters who have been Slytherins since ever! So quit acting like a git and try to behave like you have grown up in a wellmannered home. I don't care about prejudices like that because if I did I would have to kick myself. That is one of the things I'd never ever do, Mr. Malfoy!" she told her friend.

"Eh, well ... I think, it's okay then. I'm ... Welcome to Slytherin Virginia," Draco said and shook Ginny's hand too.

Their housemates had witnessed Carya's whole speech and they were impressed by her ability to convince even a Malfoy that there was no room for any argument against her opinion. This was what got her the respect that she would have throughout her years at Hogwarts.

The Slytherins didn't notice the looks everyone else in the Great Hall gave Harry, Ginny, and Carya. The ones directed at the twins were confusion, anger from the students and confusion and worry from the teachers. Ginny was looked at with curious glances since everyone had seen her brothers reactions and was waiting what would happen next.

It was a short, harsh and rather one-sided argumentation between Draco and her. Carya gave him an ear-full and almost started threatening to hex him. She finally won without hexing Draco. Ever since then Ginny Weasley was a fully accepted member of Slytherin House. But the remaining Weasley in the Great Hall looked as if Ginny was something unworthy and ugly. 

After the feast the prefects led their houses to the common rooms and showed the First Years their dormitories. The twins, Ginny and Draco said "Good Night" to each other and retreated to their rooms. 

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@George Weasley : Glad you like it ^_^

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	6. Chapter 06 Classes or Potions and Broom...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

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Chapter 06 – Classes

The first morning was unusually quiet. Most people still couldn't get over the fact that the Potters were Slytherins. Harry, Carya, Ginny and Draco had nearly finished breakfast when an almost hostile looking Professor McGonagall handed them their schedules. They hadn't done anything wrong, had they? The children couldn't explain themselves what this look had meant. 

Draco tried an explanation.

"Maybe she's just jealous that you and Harry aren't in her house like your parents were. The same for Ginny I think. I for one have never heard of a Weasley in Slytherin. No offence Ginny," he said defensively. It certainly seemed to be the most plausible answer for the Professors behaviour. 

They had more than half of the classes with the Gryffindors and the rest of them with the Ravenclaws. They had Transfiguration, Potions, Astronomy, Herbology and Flying Lessons together with the Gryffindors and History of Magic, Charms, and Defense against the Dark Arts together with Ravenclaw.

School had started and both Carya and Harry thought that is was fairly easy. They only had slight problems and didn't get top marks in History of Magic because they were more asleep than awake, in Astronomy because they weren't really interested and this year with Defense against the Dark Arts because the Lessons were less than jokes as Ginny said. 

After the first Lesson Harry and Draco decided that Quirrell was a loon but Carya had a distinct feeling that there was something wrong with him though she couldn't quite place a finger on what it was. She was soon close friends with Ginny who suffered greatly from being shunned by her brothers and fully ignored by her own parents. 

On Friday of their first week they had their first class with Professor Snape – Double-Potions – together with the Gryffindors. 

The potions lessons were taking place down in the dungeons. It was colder there than in the rest of the castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Professor Snape began his class the same way as Flitwick had done. He was taking the roll call and, just like Flitwick, paused at Harry's and Carya's names.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly without addressing anyone in particular, "The Potter twins. Who'd have thought that the two of you might get sorted into Slytherin!?"

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. 

He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word -- like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. 

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." 

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Draco exchanged looks with raised eyebrows.

"Mr. Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" 

'Powdered root of asphodel ...? Ah, yes', Harry remembered reading about that in the summer holidays. "Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death," Harry answered calmly. 

Snape seemed surprised but awarded Slytherin some points. 

"Good answer, Potter, 10 points to Slytherin!" he said. 

"Let's try another. Mr. Malfoy, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" 

Draco barely hesitated and answered: " A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons," the boy said. 

The other students barely heard Ron Weasley whisper something to Finnigan that sounded like know-it-all-snakes but Snape apparently had heard him. 

"Mr. Weasley! What is so important that you have to tell Finnigan in my class?" 

"Nothing, Ss..sir!" Ron stammered. 

"I see. Then I'm sure you can tell us what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape questioned. 

Now Harry, Carya, Ginny and Draco were snickering silently. They waited for Ron whose ears had gotten bright red to answer. 

"I don't know," said Ron quietly. 

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Weasley?" 

Ron's ears went even redder after that and he looked really angry but didn't say anything. His brothers had warned him that Snape loved to deduct points from Gryffindor. 

"Well anyone else?" he inquired. Carya raised her hand. This was easy. 

"Yes, Ms. Potter?" 

"Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." 

"Very good, textbook answer. Ten points to Slytherin!" Snape said to the Slytherin side of the room and then suddenly snapped: "Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" 

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. 

He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Draco, Ginny and surprisingly the Potter-twins since they turned out to be quite good in brewing potions. 

He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. 

Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" 

Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. 

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Dean and Ron, who had been working next to Neville. 

"You – Weasley, Thomas -- why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's five points you've lost for Gryffindor."

This was so unfair that Dean opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron. 

"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty." 

The Slytherins of course where snickering throughout this whole ordeal. As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's and Carya's minds were racing and their spirits were bright. They'd won ten points for Slytherin each in their very first week – but why did Snape seem to dislike them so much? 

They finally decided to worry about that later when Ginny suggested that they should get their homework done right now and then have the whole weekend without schoolwork.

Though Draco was not very close to the group since his father did not approve his friendship with the Potters, he and Harry were rambling about Quidditch most of the times they spend together while the girls went to the library where the often met with Hermione Granger from Ravenclaw. Since they had some classes together they sometimes did their homework together, too. 

After two weeks of classes they were about to have their first flying lesson. Unfortunately they had it together with the Gryffindors. At breakfast Carya got her copy of the Daily Prophet (_A/N: she had a subscription to some small magazines and the Prophet just to stay informed of the world outside Hogwarts _^_^). 

It was a very interesting headline on the first page:

**__**

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

by Tamara Timids

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on August, 1st, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Harry remembered Draco telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Draco hadn't mentioned the date. 

"Carya!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on our shopping day! It might've been happening while we were there!"

He grabbed the paper and read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Snape had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

They knew that there had to be a connection between whatever Snape had gotten out of that vault and this attempted robbery. But right now they had to worry about something completely different. 

After breakfast, Harry, Carya, and the other Slytherins hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Gryffindors were already there, and so were the broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Flint and Bletchley – two members of Slytherins quidditch team - complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left. 

Both houses stood on the lawn glaring at each other when their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, grey hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk. 

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." 

Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!"'

"UP!" everyone shouted. Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Draco's did jump up exactly like Harry's. Ginny and Carya did okay, Ron's had hit him square in the face which made the Slytherins laugh and Neville's hadn't moved at all.

'Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid', thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground. 

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Draco were delighted when she told Weasley he'd been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle – three -- two --" 

But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips. 

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle -- twelve feet -- twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and --

WHAM -- a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his. 

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy -- it's all right, up you get.". She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."

Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him. 

No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter. "Did you see his face, the great lump?" The other Slytherins joined in. 

"Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil. 

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said a smirking Carya who was clearly enjoying the baiting of Gryffindors. They had been hostile towards them since the first evening. "Never thought you'd like little cry-babies, Patil."

This was where Ron stepped in. "Watch your tongue Potter. You might not want to end like your good-for-nothing parents. I've heard they died as cowards," he spat. 

Parvati and many of the Gryffindors started laughing. This was too much. Even before Draco and Ginny could hold them back Carya and Harry were physically attacking Weasley and Patil. The two Gryffindors got quite a few blows barely being able to withstand the angry twins. 

Their rescue was none other than Professor Snape and they didn't know what would've been worse – dealing with Snape about this or get beaten up by two Slytherins.

The Professor stopped the fight and gave each of them detentions. Ron and Parvati had to clean all bedpans in the infirmary with toothbrushes but no one ever knew what the twins had done in detention. They never told anyone besides Ginny and Hermione and those always kept it secret. 

When They arrived at Snape's office at the scheduled time he told them that he had to give them detention to make it less suspicious. Actually they were helping him brew some healing potions for the infirmary.

Another two weeks later Slytherin house held it's quidditch tryouts. Draco and Harry both wanted to participate but didn't really think they'd have a chance. They were only First Years and it was a well known fact that those were never chosen for the house teams. But then everyone got a surprise. 

Harry was picked as reserve-seeker and Draco as reserve-beater. Some of the team members were graduating this year and if they did well, Harry and Draco would be on the regular team in second year. Their friends were happy for them and said that this had to be a record for getting into reserve position. 

While exploring the castle the five friends somehow ended up in the forbidden third floor corridor. Draco had soon stopped to insult Hermione for being muggle-born but not until Carya hexed him. He had to go to the infirmary to have the kitten ears removed. They were curios what would be so horrible and tried to look. 

The children were shocked about what they saw. A three-headed dog barely fitting in that hallway. Only Hermione noticed him standing on a trapdoor. 

"I wonder what he's guarding," she murmured after they had found a quiet place in the library and regained their breath. 

"And I wonder if that dog has something to do with what they had tried stealing from Gringotts. Why else would Dumbledore let this, eh ... monstrous dog into the school?" Carya asked. 

__

(A/N: They never did tell the others that they had been at that vault with Snape!)

From a chat with Hagrid they found out that this giant dog was named Fluffy and somehow he let slip the name "Nicolas Flamel". 

Please Read AND Review.

Thx to all who have reviewed !!! ^_^,

Carya


	7. Chapter 07 Halloween or How to fight a ...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: What do you think of the spacing in this story? Is it comfortable enough to read like this? It's also nice to know that someone actually reads this AND likes it too. That makes me really happy. At this point I again want to thank everyone who took his or her time to review my story.

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Chapter 07 - Halloween

The weeks flew by and soon it was October. School was still easy for the twins and their three friends because they spent many hours in the library doing research and homework. Harry and Draco were practising quidditch but since they weren't allowed to have their own brooms they had to use school brooms. 

The girls sometimes watched or tried to learn some of the more difficult hexes or curses from Carya's book. They didn't know that they might need those spells in the near future. It happened on Halloween. Ron had been his usual bastard self and humiliated Hermione in one of their shared classes. 

She didn't turn up for diner in the Great Hall and because of that missed Professor Quirrell storming into the hall and screaming. "Troll -- in the dungeons -- thought you ought to know."

And then he sank to the floor in a dead faint. There was an uproar. It took several purple Firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence. 

"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!" 

The Slytherin prefect Marcus Flint was in his element just like Percy Weasley from Gryffindor. "Follow me! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Get out of my way, I'm a prefect!" 

"How could a troll get in?" Harry asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ginny. 

"Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke," said Draco to hide his nervousness. 

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Draco's arm. 

"I've just thought -- Hermione." 

"What about her?" asked Draco. 

Harry looked worried and Carya understood. "She doesn't know about the troll and I highly doubt that the Ravenclaws would try and look for her. They would never break the rules like that," she said. 

Draco bit his lip. "Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Flint's better not to see us."

Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them. 

"Flint!" hissed Draco, pulling the others behind a large stone griffin. 

Peering around it, however, they saw not Flint but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view. 

"What's he doing?" Harry whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?" 

The others shrugged. Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps. 

"He's heading for the third floor," Harry said, but Carya held up her hand. "Can you smell something, too?"

Harry sniffed and a foul stench reached his nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean. And then they heard it -- a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Draco pointed -- at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward the girls bathroom. 

They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight. It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet.

The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long. The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.

They heard someone scream – it was Hermione. They quickly considered their chances against a fully grown troll - they were four, five if you counted Hermione in but she might be too terrified right now. Then they ran into the toilet. The troll had started to crush the cabins. 

Harry and Ginny shouted curse words at the troll to get his attention when Draco shouted: 

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" 

The creatures club floated in the air above its head and stayed there. 

"_Stupefy_!" said Carya and the troll fell to the floor stunned. 

As soon as they were sure the troll was out cold Harry ran over to Hermione, hugged her close and tried to calm and comfort her. It was pretty obvious that he liked her very much.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the five of them look up. They hadn't realised what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. Harry got up and stood besides his sister, just in case. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. 

Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart. Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Draco, Ginny, Hermione, Carya and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. 

"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. 

Harry looked at Carya, who was still standing with her wand in hand. 

"You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory? You will all receive det- ... " 

She got no further because Snape spoke. "Let me deal with them Minerva. They are students from my house after all!" Snape threw in suddenly. His voice was cold and made the kids shiver slightly. 

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look. Harry looked at the floor. He wished Carya would put her wand down. Then a small voice came out of the shadows. 

"Please, Professor Snape -- they were looking for me and tried to warn me about the troll because I hadn't been at the feast.." 

"And why weren't you at the feast, Miss Granger?" he asked curious. 

Hermione suddenly looked very uncomfortable and decided to overhear the question. Instead she tried to help the others. 

"Professor, if they hadn't found me I'd be dead now. Harry and Ginny distracted the troll while Draco disarmed and Carya stunned it then. They didn't have enough time to fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived." 

"Well -- in that case..." said Professor Snape, staring at his four Slytherins, "Miss Granger, you are lucky to have these four as your friends! Well, I too think you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken out a fully-grown mountain troll. However, you each win Slytherin ten points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Slytherin dungeon or in your case the Ravenclaw common room, Miss Granger. Students are finishing the feast in their houses. You may go."

They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they were near their dungeon. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else. They had reached the portrait of the Salazar Slytherin. "Pureblood," they said and entered. 

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. No one noticed them coming in and they settled down in a corner to discuss the evening. Carya and Draco were quietly discussing their battle with the troll, Ginny still looked a bit shaken and Harry - Harry just hoped that Hermione was alright and now safe in her own common room.

Finally it was November and the Quidditch season would soon begin. The first match would be Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Draco and Harry were already plotting and scheming for some tricks they could pull off on the opposite team without being noticed. Their team almost always tried and cheated but this time they probably wouldn't need those tricks. 

Gryffindor hadn't found a decent replacement for their seeker and because of that their reserve beater would take that position. Slytherin would surely win. They were already leading in the house championship because of Harry's and Carya's good marks (Not that anyone would admit that but it's the truth *grin*).

Harry and Draco enjoyed quidditch practise while Ginny, Carya and Hermione preferred to stay in the library studying. They weren't that interested in Quidditch and would only watch if there might be a chance that Harry or Draco would play (which was very unlikely since most of the times Slytherin beat up the other teams). 

Ginny was doing her potions essay and Hermione rewrote her History of Magic essay the second time while Carya desperately tried to learn some new hexes and curses she had found in a non-restricted book on that topic (_A/N: I think I don't need to mention that there are only few non-restricted books about that in Hogwarts, do I?_).

When Hermione was finished with her essay she returned to her search about Nicolas Flamel whose name Hagrid had let slip a while ago. She hadn't found anything so far. But she also knew that she and Carya had seen or read the name somewhere before. Hermione just couldn't remember where that had been. 

The week flew by and soon it was Saturday. The first Quidditch match of the season. Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Although Hermione was a Ravenclaw she stood with Ginny, Carya and the other Slytherins (her own house doesn't like her that much because of her friendship with the Potter twins, Draco and Ginny). 

In the Slytherin changing room the captain, Marcus Flint, was shouting at his team and basically telling them: Get out, win the game or die trying! They knew this was his style to tell them to do their best. 

"Mount your brooms, please." Came Madam Hooch's voice from the outside.

Harry and Draco watched the others fly onto the field. They were waiting with all other reserve players just in case someone got injured and couldn't continue playing. Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle. Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air. They were off. 

"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor -- what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too --" 

"JORDAN!" 

"Sorry, Professor." Lee Jordan, a Gryffindor third year, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by Professor McGonagall. 

"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve -- back to Johnson and -- no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes -- Flint flying like an eagle up there -- he's going to sc- no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle -- that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and -- OUCH -- that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger.

Quaffletaken by the Slytherins -- that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger -- sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which -- nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes -- she's really flying -- dodges a speeding Bludger -- the goal posts are ahead -- come on, now, Angelina -- Keeper Bletchley dives -- misses -- GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"

Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins. This went back and forth for about an hour. Soon it was 180 - 150 for Gryffindor. Suddenly the two seekers flew past their team mates at full speed. It seemed that they had spotted the snitch. 

But then it happened. One of the Weasley twins send a bludger in Terence Higgs's way (he is the Slytherin seeker). Not only got the Slytherin hit, Fred Weasley endangered his own team mate. This got Fred a severe berating from his own team-captain, Oliver Wood. Higgs fell off his broom and crashed into the ground. 

Madam Hooch stopped the game and Higgs who was unconscious and had his right arm broken in what seemed more than one place was brought to the infirmary. Harry and Draco hoped he would be alright. Neither of them realised what this meant for the rest of the game. 

But then Flint yelled:" Potter, get your ass onto a broom! You're playing!" 

Draco congratulated Harry who suddenly was very nervous. Soon the game continued and Harry's nervousness faded. He enjoyed the game and went looking for the snitch. It was as Harry dodged another Bludger, which went spinning dangerously past his head, that it happened. His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, he thought he was going to fall. 

He gripped the broom tightly with both his hands and knees. He'd never felt anything like that. It happened again. It was as though the broom was trying to buck him off. But brooms did not suddenly decide to buck their riders off. Harry tried to turn back toward the Slytherin goal- posts -- he had half a mind to ask Flint to call time-out -- and then he realised that his broom was completely out of his control.

He couldn't turn it. He couldn't direct it at all. It was zigzagging through the air, and every now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated him. Lee was still commentating. 

"Slytherin in possession -- Flint with the Quaffle -- passes Spinnet -- passes Bell -- hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose -- only joking, Professor -- Slytherins score -- A no..."

The Slytherins were cheering. No one seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely. It was carrying- him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.

"Dunno what Harry thinks he's doing," Hermione mumbled. 

She stared through Hagrid's binoculars. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he'd lost control of his broom... but he can't have...." 

Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then the whole crowd gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand. 

"Did something happen to it when they blocked him?" Ginny whispered. 

"Can't have," Hagrid said, his voice shaking. "Can't nothing interfere with a broomstick except powerful Dark magic -- no kid could do that to a broom." 

At these words, Hermione seized Hagrid's binoculars once again, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd. 

"What are you doing?" moaned Ginny, gray-faced. 

"I knew it," Hermione gasped, "It's Quirrell -- look." 

Carya grabbed the binoculars. Quirrell was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry. Besides him stood Snape and was muttering non-stop under his breath. 

"He's doing something -- jinxing the broom," said Hermione. 

"And Snape's trying to help," added Carya in a thoughtful and bewildered voice. 

"What should we do?" asked Ginny timidly. 

"Leave it to me," answered Carya.

Before Ginny or Hermione could say another word, Carya had disappeared. Ginny turned the binoculars back on Harry. His broom was vibrating so hard, it was almost impossible for him to hang on much longer. The whole crowd was on its feet, watching, terrified, as the Slytherins flew up to tryand pull Harry safely onto one of their brooms, but it was no good -- every time they got near him, the broom would jump higher still. 

They dropped lower and circled beneath him, obviously hoping to catch him if he fell. Alicia Spinnet seized the Quaffle and scored five times without anyone noticing.

"Come on, Carya," Ginny muttered desperately. 

Carya had fought her way across to the stand where Snape and Quirrell stood, and was now racing along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Flitwick headfirst into the row in front. Reaching them, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. 

"_Frigesco_!" Carya whispered.

Quirrell froze. Carya had cast a temporary freezing charm on him. It would only last for about thirty seconds but that had to be enough. And it was. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom.

But Quirrell had noticed and seen her. He gave her a murderous look. She was really frightened for a moment and quickly hurried back to her friends. Ginny and Hermione were glad that nothing bad had happened. 

"You should have seen that look Quirrell gave me. He knows. It was like hell freezing over. I was actually scared for a few seconds, can you imagine that?" Carya said and the two girls just looked at her with their mouths hanging open. 

"Hey look, Harry has seen something!" shouted Ginny all of a sudden.

Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick -- he hit the field on all fours -- coughed -- and something gold fell into his hand. 

"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion. 

"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Wood was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference -- Harry hadn't broken any rules and Marcus Flint was still happily shouting the results -- Slytherin had won by three hundred points to one hundred and thirty. 

Harry heard none of this, though. He was being made a cup of strong tea back in Hagrid's hut, with Ginny, Carya and Hermione. Draco stayed with the team to inform them what was being said. 

"It was Quirrell," Ginny was explaining, "Hermione, Carya and I saw him. He was cursing your broomstick, muttering, he wouldn't take his eyes off you." 

"Rubbish," said Hagrid, who hadn't heard a word of what had gone on next to him in the stands. "Why would Quirrell do somethin' like that? He's a teacher in Hogwarts!" 

Harry, Ginny, Carya and Hermione looked at one another, wondering what to tell him. They decided to let it drop for now. You couldn't argue with Hagrid on something like that. He was plain stubborn on such topics. 

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Review Responses in Author's Note!

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	8. Chapter 08 Christmas or Friends, Presen...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: Well, I think I'm somewhat back to my own self now. Though it might take a while to get over everything. I'm sure many of you know what this feels like. I hope you'll like this chapter although it is damned short (not even 3000 word at all!!). And I already have a few ideas for Chapter 09, which will most likely be called: The Mirror of Erised or Your greatest Wish?. ^_^

Well, now on with the story.

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Chapter 08 - Christmas

Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban. No one could wait for the holidays to start. 

While the Slytherin common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

"I do feel so sorry," said Ron Weasley, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." 

He was looking over at Ginny as he spoke. Carya and Harry growled. Ginny, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them. Ron had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Gryffindors had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next. 

Then he'd realised that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick. So Ron, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry and Carya about having no proper family and Ginny for being a 'slimy Slytherin' and 'a disgrace for their family'. 

It was true that Harry and Carya weren't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas but that had other reasons. Although they didn't have real parents any more, they Dursley's treated them like they were their own children. If that wasn't a 'proper family', then what was it? Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and the twins had signed up at once. 

They didn't feel sorry for themselves at all; They just wanted to stay with their friends. Ginny and Hermione were staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were still upset about Ginny and the Granger's would fly to New York to attend a dentists conference there. Draco on the other hand had to go home for Christmas. His parents wanted him there. It was nothing they could've changed. 

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. 

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked. 

"Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me - Harry, Carya, Ginny, Draco we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library." 

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Carya, tearing her eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree. 

"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. 

"Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?" 

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is." 

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here -- I've told yeh -- drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'." 

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione. 

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere -- just give us a hint -- I know I've read his name somewhere." 

"I'm sayin' nothin, said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ginny, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library. 

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what was guarded by Fluffy? The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. 

He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows. 

Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defence Against the Dark Arts. 

He, Ginny, Carya, Draco and Hermione had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk someone hearing what they were up to.

Once the Christmas holidays had started they all had a fairly good time. Unfortunately Ron, Percy and the Weasley twins were staying in Hogwarts too because their parents were visiting Charlie Weasley who worked with dragons in Romania. 

On Christmas Eve, Harry, Carya, Ginny and Hermione went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun. When they woke early in the morning, however, the first thing each of them saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of their beds. 

"Merry Christmas," said Carya sleepily as Harry scrambled out of bed and pulled on his bathrobe. 

Since Harry was the only first year boy staying in Hogwarts she had no problems with sneaking into the boys dormitory. Ginny was with her. 

"You, too," said Harry grumpily. He had never been that much of a morning person. 

Harry picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was 

__

To Harry, from Hagrid. 

Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it -- it sounded a bit like an owl. Carya told him that she got a small wooden harp that made sounds like a small bird from Hagrid. A second, parcel contained two letters. One for Harry and one for Carya. 

__

We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. 

Buy yourselves something you really want when you get the chance. 

From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. 

"That's nice," said Ginny, "What is that? Money? Looks weird. I've never seen paper money." She continued and shook her head in amusement. 

Harry's next present contained candy -- a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione. The next ones were a book on Quidditch from his sister and a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans from Ginny. Carya had gotten the same from Hermione and Ginny. Harry had given his sister a book on potions since she really liked that subject.

This only left one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it. Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds. Ginny gasped. 

"I've heard of those," she said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every Flavour Beans and Chocolate Frogs she'd gotten from Hermione. "If that's what I think it is -- they're really rare, and really valuable." 

"What is it?" asked Harry. 

He picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.

"It's an invisibility cloak," said Carya, a look of awe on her face and Ginny only nodded. "I'm sure it is -- try it on." 

Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ginny gave a yell. "It is! Look down!" 

Harry looked down at his feet, but they were gone. He dashed to the mirror. Sure enough, his reflection looked back at him, just his head suspended in mid-air, his body completely invisible. He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection vanished completely. 

"There's a note!" said Ginny suddenly. "A note fell out of it!"

Harry pulled off the cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words: 

__

Your father left this in my possession before he died.

It is time it was returned to you.

Use it well.

A Very Merry Christmas to both of you.

There was no signature. Harry stared at the note. Ginny was admiring the cloak. 

"I'd give anything for one of these," she said. "Anything. What's the matter?" 

"Nothing," said Harry. He felt very strange. Who had sent the cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?

Then Carya asked: "May I try it on too?" 

"Sure," Harry said and handed the cloak over to his sister. 

Ginny had hardly gotten any presents at all. A woollen handmade sweater from her mother and a small box of candy from her father. Carya got her a book about charms and Harry gave her a big size box Chocolate Frogs. But the best one she had received from Draco. It was a tiny glass statue of a dragon. The attached note said:

__

Merry Christmas, Ginny! 

Hope you like it. 

Draco

And like it she did. But they all were still wary about Draco's family. They didn't know if they could fully trust him or not. Suddenly there was a soft hissing heard from Harry's bed. Ginny and Hermione jumped up in surprise.

"What was that?" Hermione asked with a slightly quivering voice.

Harry and Carya looked very uneasy now. "Eh, ... that ... well ..." Harry started.

"I think we should tell them. Wait a moment, I'll be right back," Carya told them and left for the girls dormitory. When she came back she was holding a small basket.

"Well, you see, we didn't want anyone to find out that we had them because it isn't exactly allowed. But we have more than one pet. I know Hermione, that's forbidden but we couldn't leave them at home. ... They're ... well, they're snakes," Carya explained and their two friends looked shocked.

The twins carefully lifted their pets onto their laps and Ginny as well as Hermione could get a good look at them.

"Please don't tell anyone, okay? Not even the other Slytherins know about them. Can you promise us that you won't tell?" Harry asked.

"You had that animal in our dorm for almost four month now and didn't tell me? Oh forget it, I should have noticed. My bed's directly beside yours. Don't you trust us?" Ginny inquired slightly hurt.

"It's not that Ginny, really. Please believe me. I was afraid you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore if you found out I liked pet-snakes and even HAVE one. I didn't want to hurt you, really!" Carya said, "The same goes for you Hermione. We do trust you two. It's just. People always assume the worst about something like that. Do you remember what the other houses said when Harry, you and I were sorted into Slytherin?"

"And how hard we had to fight to convince the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that we're not evil or dark or something like that? Do you remember that?" continued Harry, "It's not that easy, we just didn't want to loose you as our friends."

"Harry, Carya, you could never loose us as your friends. We are family, aren't we? I was startled at first when I heard the hissing but now I actually think that they are beautiful. They match your eye colours. Was that intentionally or is it a coincidence?" Hermione reassured them and Ginny nodded at the appropriate places.

"It has been half intentionally. They had just hatched and actually are still babies but we liked them the instant we saw them. So we bought them and Snape didn't say we couldn't. I think he knows," Harry said and stroked the snake in his lap carefully.

They smiled at each other now and after promising that they wouldn't tell anyone the snakes were put back in their respective baskets and the four friends went to breakfast. They were early and only the headmaster and professor Snape were sitting at the table. There was only one table because there were so few students left. The kids quickly ate breakfast and hurried outside.

They spent the time with snowball fights and were soaking when they came back. After a quick shower and changing into dry clothes they met in the library. It was real luck that Madam Pince liked the four so much. They never mistreated her precious books and were always quiet and polite in her library. So she allowed them in there over christmas.

This time Hermione could not hide her astonishment about the three Slytherins. "Are you three sure that you're sorted into the right house?" she asked smirking slightly and when the others looked confused she added grinning, "From your behaviour right now one would think you would do better in Ravenclaw. Not even most of my housemates study this much."

That got her three almost identical trademark Slytherin smirks in return. It almost seemed as if you got the ability for that once you get sorted there.

"Why Hermione, are we observant today," teased Ginny.

"You should know that we only do this for gaining knowledge and as you know..." said Harry.

And Carya continued still smirking, " ... knowledge is power. And that of course is what the average, ambitious Slytherin is trying to achieve."

After that they all burst out in laughter and Madam Pince smiled at them. She was happy that they had fun and since they were the only ones in the library right now it wasn't necessary to tell them to be quiet. The whole afternoon was spent there studying and doing homework that was due after the holidays. Soon it was time for diner.

The Potter twins had never in all their life had seen such a Christmas dinner. Christmas at the Dursley's had been great but this was heaven. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce -- and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. 

These fantastic party favours were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursley's usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Hermione and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice.

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided. Not even the presence of the Weasley kids from Gryffindor could ruin their Christmas.

When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of non-explodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and his own new wizard chess set. The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner. 

Harry and the girls spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Then, cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Slytherin common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Hermione. (Since there were hardly any Slytherins staying over Christmas they allowed Hermione to come into their common Room).

He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Ginny hadn't tried to help him so much. After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and listen to some stories the older Slytherins had to tell. Hermione had left them after dinner and went to her own common room. 

It had been Harry's and Carya's best Christmas day ever. Yet something had been nagging at the back of Harry's mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it: the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it.

Carya and Ginny, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother them, fell asleep almost as soon as they'd drawn the curtains of their four-poster beds. In his dormitory Harry leaned over the side of his own bed and pulled the cloak out from under it. His father's... this had been his father's. He let the material flow over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air. 

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Review Responses in Author's Note!

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	9. Chapter 09 The Mirror of Erised or Your...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: I'm actually back to normal by now. Sorry for the delay though but I have a bit of writers block on this story though I got some ideas for the next installments (Books 2, 3 + 4). This is a bit short (only about 2000 words) and will eventually be revised in the future but for now it has to do.

Although no one's reviewed until now for Chapter 08 I'll continue. I know online-time is expensive but please hit the little review button at the bottom and leave me a few words!

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Chapter 09 - The Mirror of Erised

__

'Use it well', the note had said. He had to try it, now. He slipped out of bed and wrapped the cloak around himself. Looking down at his legs, he saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling. Use it well.

Suddenly, Harry felt wide-awake. The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this cloak. Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know. Carya ... should Harry wake her? 

Something held him back -- their father's cloak -- he felt that this time -- the first time -- he wanted to use it alone. He crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole. 

"Who's there?" grumbled the portrait of Salazar Slytherin which guarded the entrance to the Slytherin common room. 

Harry said nothing. He walked quickly down the corridor. Where should he go? Perhaps the Restricted Section in the library? He'd be able to read as long as he liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was. He set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around him as he walked. But he didn't get that far. On his way to the library something glittered through a slightly ajar door. 

It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket -- but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way. It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. 

There was an inscription carved around the top: 

**__**

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

He had no idea what that could mean. It seemed to be written in some strange language he couldn't understand. Harry moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself but see no reflection again. He stepped in front of it. He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself from screaming. 

He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when he had won his first quidditch match -- for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him. But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror. 

There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder -- but still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not? He looked in the mirror again. 

A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air -- she and the others existed only in the mirror.

She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes -- her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green -- exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. 

It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did. Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection. Harry noticed that his sister was also standing there right besides him. That couldn't be. She was in her dormitory. That meant, no, he just couldn't believe that he was seeing his family. "Mom?" he whispered. "Dad?" This can't be true Harry thought.

They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees -- Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.

The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness. How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn't stay here, he had to find his way back to bed before he got caught. 

He tore his eyes away from his mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room."And next time I'll bring Carya along."

The next morning Harry told his sister about the mirror. And the next night they went together. At first Carya saw the same picture as Harry but then it shifted an became foggy and after a few seconds there was her family again. Carya too had noticed the strange inscription at the top of the mirror and decided to write it onto a piece of paper. 

They came back every night over the next week. Just to sit there and watch their family. Harry's reflection always stayed the same but the more often Carya looked into the mirror the shorter was the period she could see her family. The foggy picture was visible most of the time. Carya didn't know what that meant and told Harry that perhaps it would be better not to come back here. 

Harry of course didn't want to listen but at the same time he knew that his sister might be right. With sadness in their hearts got up. When they left they decided not to come back and they didn't even notice the smiling figure standing in the shadows behind them. Out of the darkness stepped their headmaster. He was actually smiling and murmured quietly.

"Ah, I see the Potter twins have discovered the Mirror of Erised," he whispered.

Dumbledore was quite surprised at Carya's reaction. She seemed to be weary about the mirror and had enough influence on her brother to make sure they both wouldn't come back. He suspected that they didn't really know what the mirror did or how it worked but he was sure they would figure it out eventually. 

They both thought very often about that strange mirror. Harry silently longed to see his family again but he was sure that his sister had been right. Carya too thought about the mirror. But her thought were focused on the strange inscription at the top. She had written it down as soon as they got back the second night. 

She couldn't find anything about that in the library. It was Ginny who accidentally helped her with the answer. She, Hermione and Carya where once again sitting in the library studying when Ginny knocked over her cup of tea. The slip of parchment on which Carya had written the inscription was soaked.

The girls desperately tried to dry it without smearing the words. Soon the front was okay but when Carya turned the parchment over she gasped. The words were visible on the other side. They were of course mirror written now but Carya had an idea. They had been written at the top of a mirror frame. She tried to read them backwards. Soon the words: 

'**_Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_**' 

became 

'**_ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desirE_**'

"Hmm, this is much better but it still doesn't make much sense either. Ginny, Hermione can you please look at this and help me figure it out?" Carya asked her friends.

And help they did. It took the girls nearly thirty minutes of combined wit to get it right. Soon they had the sentence: 

'**_I show not your face but your hearts desire_**'. 

"That's it. Now I know what it does or rather how it works," Carya murmured excited. "Arrgh, we have been so stupid. This was really obvious. How could I not notice this before. Oh, well done Carya, so much for your so called wit," she continued angry with herself for some reason Ginny and Hermione didn't know. 

They just stared at Carya because the girl had never insulted her own intelligence before, quite the opposite. There was an absolute and uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Then Hermione and Ginny asked their friend what was wrong Carya told them everything about the mirror and what she and Harry had seen in there. In the evening Carya told her twin about the deciphered inscription and what she thought about it's meaning.

"That could be true, you know? I've always wanted to be with our parents. Not that I don't like Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. It's just not the same," Harry said sadly. "But that doesn't explain why it went all foggy when you looked into it, does it?"

"I know it's strange. Perhaps my heart doesn't know what it wants most right now? I don't know. It's too confusing. ... I'm off to bed. Good night, my dear brother," she said and left towards the girls dormitories. 

The next day they decided to do something to distract them from thinking about the mirror. Ginny had a helpful idea. They still had to work on some essays. Especially on those for Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and History of Magic. Only McGonagall and Snape were desperate enough to assign them homework over the Christmas holidays. And Professor Binns? 

He just didn't know better. He was a ghost. What did ghost's know about children and holidays. Flitwick just had been angry with the Slytherins. They had accidentally knocked him over when a Levitation charm went wrong.

Carya started on the Potions essay. It was about the efficiency of the different healing draughts they'd already covered this year. The potions themselves were not that difficult but the topic was. There was so much to read and most students dreaded this. 

Harry began the transfigurations essay. They had to describe the differences between the Transfigurations they'd done so far in last term. He had been one of the first Slytherins ever to get some house points from McGonagall for a successful transfiguration.

Hermione did the History of Magic essay. She was quite interested in History and if it wasn't in class she was really good at it. And Ginny who was really good at Charms took this one. It wasn't that difficult but the required length was difficult to achieve without thorough research on the topic. 

When they'd finished their assignments they gave their scrolls to each other to read and then to write their own one in each of the remaining two subjects. This was okay because they didn't copy each others works. They just 'compared notes' or rather essays.

Hermione always told them this was like cheating but she didn't mean it, not really anymore. Over the last few weeks she had found out that they could learn so much more if they shared parts of the work. The three friends were snickering when they thought about the first time they'd done this. Hermione had freaked out and berated them. She had been that loud that Madam Pince nearly threw them out of the library.

But it wasn't the same this time. Draco was missing. Although Carya and Harry were still a bit weary about him because of his parents and Ginny and Hermione because of his attitude towards muggle- borns and those who weren't participating in the 'pureblood-nonsense' as Carya called it. But they still missed him since he had almost stopped to act like that around Hermione and Ginny. 

Only sometimes he slipped and then he got some severe berating from Carya. The Potter girl could be quite sinister and devious if she wanted to. Draco didn't like to be the recipient of that particular treatment at all. But he didn't change because he was afraid of Carya. 

He just wanted to be friends with Ginny Hermione and the twins. He had been brought up that way and it was hard to stop behaving like that. And in addition to that there were his parents who didn't like the fact that he had them as friends. Draco just hoped his parents would see it his way sometime in the future. He really hoped but knew that they would hardly change.

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	10. Chapter 10 The Forbidden Forest or Less...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: I'm actually back to normal by now. Writers block lessened a bit but I'm sad about getting no responses at all. This chapter is about 4000 words. Unfortunately I couldn't really come up with a good forest scene yet. Once I absolutely run out of ideas for the other books (whenever that will be) I'm going to rewrite this book and take out all copied parts..

Although no one's reviewed until now for Chapter 08 and 09 I'll continue. I know online-time is expensive but please hit the little review button at the bottom and leave me a few words! It doesn't hurt you know? I do it too sometimes.

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Chapter 10 - The Forbidden Forest

The holidays were over. Hermione was disappointed that they hadn't found anything but pleased that her friends had already done their homework. Soon they continued searching. Harry didn't have much time though. Flint had decided that it would be better to have Harry as constant seeker and he had to go to every single practise. Draco joined him most times. 

It was upon the girls to find out who Nicolas Flamel was. Slytherin had won the next game too. It had been against Hufflepuff. Harry had caught the snitch when they were two hundred points ahead and Slytherin won three hundred and fifty to ten. 

It was while doing homework in the library that Carya found out about Flamel. Draco had just offered them chocolate frogs when Harry got Dumbledore's Wizard Card. 

"Dumbledore again," he said, "He was the first one I ever-" 

Suddenly Carya gasped. And then looked at the others. 

"I've found him!" she whispered. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here -- listen to this," she said and grabbed the card from Harry's hand, " Here is it, listen, 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!" 

Hermione got wide eyes and ordered them to stay where they were. She soon returned with a heavy looking book and began skipping through it. 

"Here, I've found it. Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!" 

At this Carya and Draco gasped while Ginny and Harry only looked confused. Shaking her head Hermione continued. 

"The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).' That's it. The dog is guarding the Philosopher's Stone!"

"I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!" whispered Ginny. 

"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Draco, "No wonder someone is after it! Anyone would want it." 

"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Carya, "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

They soon had their last Quidditch game of the season. It would be against Ravenclaw. This would be more difficult than the other two because the Ravenclaws had a decent team. Flint was pushing them even harder in practise and Harry was so tired that he hardly did anything besides Quidditch, homework, eating and sleeping. 

But in the end they hadn't needed to worry. Harry caught the snitch after only a few minutes. This was a new record. The Slytherins were ecstatic and the Gryffindors could be found sulking. They had no chance on winning the cup this year. They would have to beat Hufflepuff by at least three hundred and sixty points to get it. That was nearly impossible.

The next two weeks were really quiet. Too quiet to be exact. Soon it happened. It was short after curfew and Carya, Harry and Draco had just brought Hermione to the Ravenclaw common room when they were caught by Professor McGonagall. Behind their teacher stood a smirking Ron Weasley. She was really upset and deducted fifty points from each of them. They all got detention and to their surprise Ron got detention too because he too had been out after curfew. 

The next morning everyone in Slytherin was mad at them for loosing so much points in one night. The Gryffindors were cheering. Their chance to the Quidditch Cup was back. Two hundred and ten points were much but manageable they said. Snape was extremely disappointed and angry with both groups. The three Slytherin students and McGonagall. He was unnaturally unfair towards Gryffindor that day. 

At lunch the Slytherins got a note that told them where and how they had to serve detention. It would be that evening. The note said: 

__

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch

in the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall 

At eleven o'clock that night, Harry, Carya and Draco said good-bye to Ginny in the common room and went down to the entrance hall. Filch was already there -- and so was Ron Weasley. They had forgotten that Weasley had gotten a detention, too. 

"Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside. "I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me.... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed.... Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."

They marched off across the dark grounds. Harry wondered what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted. The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, they could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then they heard a distant shout. 

"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started." 

Harry's heart rose; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be so bad. His relief must have showed in his -face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy -- it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."

At this, Draco let out a little moan, and Weasley stopped dead in his tracks. 

"The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual. "We can't go in there at night -- there's all sorts of things in there -- werewolves, I heard." 

"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?" 

Hagrid came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.

"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, you lot?" 

"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, they're here to be punished, after all." 

"That's why yer late, is it?" said Hagrid, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here." 

"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them," he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.

Ron now turned to Hagrid. "I'm not going in that forest," he said, and Harry was pleased to hear

the note of panic in his voice. 

"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yehve got ter pay fer it. Yeh'll do summat useful or Yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer parents'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on!" 

Weasley didn't move. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then dropped his gaze. 

"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."

He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest. 

"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have

ter put it out of its misery."

"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Draco, unable to keep the fear out of his voice. 

"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent

directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least. So me, Ron, an' Draco'll go one way an' Harry, Carya, an' Fang'll go the other. Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now -- that's it -- an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh -- so, be careful -- let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A little way into it they reached a fork in the earth path, and Draco, Ron, and Hagrid took the left path while Harry and Carya, and Fang took the right. 

They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. Draco saw that Hagrid looked very worried. 

"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Draco asked. 

"Not fast enough," said Hagrid. "It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before."

They walked past a mossy tree stump. Draco could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path. 

"You all right, boys?" Hagrid whispered. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter -- GET BEHIND THAT TREE!" 

Hagrid seized Draco and Ron and hoisted them off the path behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. The three of them listened. 

Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground. Hagrid was squinting up the dark path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away. 

"I knew it, " he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be." 

"A werewolf?" Ron suggested. 

"That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," said Hagrid grimly. "Right, follow me, but careful, now." 

They walked more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something definitely moved.

"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself -- I'm armed!" 

And into the clearing came -- was it a man, or a horse? To the waist, a man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Draco's and Ron's jaws dropped. 

"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?" He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand. 

"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"

"Can't be too careful, Ronan," said Hagrid, patting his crossbow. "There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Draco Malfoy an' Ron Weasley, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur. 

"We'd noticed," said Draco faintly. 

"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?" 

"Erm --" "A bit," said Ron timidly. 

"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight." 

"Yeah," said Hagrid, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt -- you seen anythin'?"

Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again. "Always the innocent are the first victims," he said. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now." 

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?" 

"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright." 

"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home, said Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?" Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. 

At last, he said, "The forest hides many secrets."

A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and -bodied and wilder-looking than Ronan. 

"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?" 

"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?" 

"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured -- would yeh know anythin' about it?" 

Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward. "Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.

"We've heard," said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then." 

Draco and Ron followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view. 

"Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon." 

"Are there many of them in here?" asked Draco. 

"Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."

"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" said Ron. 

"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns -- never heard anythin' like it before." 

They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Draco kept looking nervously over his shoulder. He had the nasty feeling they were being watched. He was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. 

Meanwhile Harry set off into the heart of the forest with Carya and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick. 

Harry thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Harry could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak. 

"Look --" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop his sister.

Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer. It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves. Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood. 

A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered.... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast. Harry, Carya, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood. 

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!" 

Fang let out a terrible howl and bolted away. The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at the twins -- unicorn blood was dribbling down its front. It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry -- he couldn't move for fear. 

Then a pain like he'd never felt before pierced Harry's head and Carya's collarbone; it was as though their scars were on fire. Half blinded, they staggered backward. They heard hooves behind them, galloping, and something jumped clean over Harry, charging at the figure.

The pain in Harry's head was so bad he fell to his knees. It took a minute or two to pass. When he looked up, the figure had gone. A centaur was standing over him, he had white-blond hair and a palomino body. Carya lay besides him panting heavily. 

"Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Harry to his feet. 

"Yes -- thank you -- what was that?" asked Harry and Carya slowly got up too. The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead.

"You are the Potter twins," he said. "You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time -- especially for you. My name is Firenze," he added. 

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty. The Centaurs were currently fighting over what Firenze had done or said. The twins couldn't quite understand them. They still were too upset to notice anything. Then Bane and Ronan left and Harry didn't have a clue what was going on.

"Why're they so angry?" he asked. "What was that thing you saved us from, anyway?" Firenze did not answer Harry's question. 

But suddenly he suddenly asked "Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?" 

"No," said Harry, startled by the odd question. "We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions." 

"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze. "Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."

Harry stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight. 

"But who'd be that desperate?" he wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, deaths better, isn't it?" 

"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else -- something that will bring you back to full strength and power -- something that will mean you can never die. Mr. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"

"The Philosopher's Stone! Of course -- the Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who --" Carya interrupted. 

"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?" Firenze asked them. It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Harry's heart. 

"Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol-" 

At that moment Hagrid, Draco and Ron together with a frightened looking Fang came running into the clearing.

"Harry! Carya, are you all right?" Draco was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind him. 

"I'm fine," said Harry and Carya in unison, hardly knowing what they were saying. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's here in the clearing." 

"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now. Good luck, young Potters," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."

He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving the twins shivering behind him. 

Ginny had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return. She dreamt something about charms class when Draco gently shook her awake. In a matter of seconds, though, she was wide-eyed as Harry and Carya began to tell her and Draco what had happened in the forest. Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking while Carya was only sitting in an armchair. She was shivering slightly and looked rather pale.

"Someone wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and I bet it's Quirrell ... it all makes sense... him trying to kill me in that Quidditch game... his murderous look towards Carya.... Firenze saved us, but he shouldn't have done so.... the other centaurs were furious... they were talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen.... They must show that Voldemort's coming back.... they think Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me.... I suppose that's written in the stars as well." 

Ginny and Draco were shivering every time Harry mentioned the Dark Lords name but they didn't say anything.

"So all we've got to wait for now is Quirrell to steal the Stone," Carya said feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me and Harry off... Well, I suppose the stars'll be happy then." 

Ginny looked very frightened now, but she had a word of comfort. "Harry, Carya, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me,

and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

The sky had turned light before they stopped talking. They went to bed exhausted, their throats sore. But the night's surprises weren't over. When Harry pulled back his sheets, he found his invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it:

__

Just in case.

Neither Harry nor Carya knew how they got through the exams. The had always been on top of class but the last weeks seemed more difficult than everything else. Both were in constant pain from their scars and expected the world to crumble around them every minute. The exams were written with Anti-Cheating spells on their quills.They had practical exams as well. 

Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap-dance across a desk. Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox -- points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers. 

Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion.

The twins did the best they could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains they had, which had been bothering them ever since their trip into the forest. Ginny and Draco thought Harry and Carya had a bad case of exam nerves because they couldn't sleep, but the truth was that they kept being woken by their old nightmares, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded figure dripping blood in it. 

Draco and Ginny didn't seem as worried about the Stone as the twins. The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Quirrell or anyone else might be up to.

Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self-stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, they couldn't help cheering with the rest. 

The four Slytherins went out to sit by the lake and were soon joined by Hermione who also had finished her last exam of the year.

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	11. Chapter 11 The Philosopher's Stone or T...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts are copied from the book, you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: Finally, I didn't have access to FF.Net for most of yesterday. Due to an annoying overload-message and refresh problems with my browser. But here it is, the second last chapter of book one.

Thanks for the reviews I got to 'Sephrenia of Ylara' and 'shadow4284' (^_^). You can find answers to your reviews in the Author's Notes.

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Chapter 11 - The Philosopher's Stone

As evening approached the friends felt the odd atmosphere which was hanging all over the castle. It seemed dark - darker than ever. 

"This is it. I can fell it. We are going through that trapdoor tonight," said Harry seriously. Ginny wanted to protest but Carya reminded her of how it had been when Voldemort was in full power. 

"No, Ginny, Harry is right. Don't you remember what was in the history books? How it was like in those days when Voldemort was in full power? I've read about that in my mothers diary and I certainly don't want to grow up in a world like that. It must have been horrible. Not to know whom you could trust. Not knowing who was friend and who was enemy. Or coming home and see that mark - the Dark Mark - above your house ..." Carya couldn't go on. 

They all knew and yet they only knew from books. But not even one of them wanted to find out for real what it had been like. They agreed to collect Hermione at the Ravenclaw common room when everyone else was asleep. 

Ginny stayed behind and was covering for them in the common room. 

"Good luck!" she said. "Please come back in one piece, okay?"

Carya, Harry and Draco nodded and made their way towards the Ravenclaw common room where Hermione was waiting for them. The four of them silently crept through the corridors. No one got in their way. Not even Peeves which was very odd and soon they'd reached the third floor corridor. 

Harry pushed the door open. As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears. Fluffy was sleeping and the harp that stood next to him kept playing as if it was enchanted. 

"Quirrell must have left it there," said Carya. 

"It must wake up the moment you stop playing," added Harry. "Well, here we go..." 

With that they one after another jumped through the trapdoor. They landed on something soft. 

"What is a plant doing here?" wondered Draco. 

But as soon as he had asked that the strange plant began to wrap itself around the four first years. They were struggling and trying to get free. It was Hermione who remembered that it was a Devil's Snare. The others panicked but she stayed calm and told them what they should do.

"Harry, Draco, Carya, listen! You have to relax. It's a Devil's Snare. It will kill you if you don't relax," she said calmly.

They didn't believe her but they knew they could trust Hermione with things like that. One after the other slowly relaxed and soon they were underneath the plant all safe and healthy. 

When they got into the next room they heard something that sounded like hundreds of wings. They actually were winged keys and as soon as Harry and Draco figured out what to do they instructed the girls. 

"Seems we have to find the right key for that door over there," Harry said.

And Draco added "Probably an small one if you can judge by the size of that the keyhole." 

Once they'd found the right key they tossed it at the girls who quickly opened the door and shut it directly behind the boys. But their was barely time to relax because they were faced with the next task. A giant chess set that covered the whole room. 

"Shit, what do we do now? I'm not even average level in chess," said Hermione and got a glare from the twins because she always beat them at chess. It seemed that either the twins nor Hermione were really good at chess but Draco was a fairly good player.

"I can do it. I've always been good at chess," he told them and they instantly felt better.

He instructed the others which positions to take and then they played what seemed for hours but it was only a few minutes. Draco was good but soon they got stuck in a situation where there was only one way out if they wanted to win. 

Carya saw that as well and shouted: "No Draco, you can't..." But the boy interrupted her. 

"I can and I will. Do you want to stop Quirrell or not?" he yelled. 

When he got no answer to that he told Harry what to do after his next move. Harry was worried but promised Draco they would do as he said. When Draco was taken by the opposite queen Harry checkmated the king. 

They'd won but Draco was injured and unconscious now. Carya told Hermione to take Draco to the hospital wing and then send an owl to Dumbledore. They departed and Harry and Carya were left alone. In the next room was a dead troll with a nasty wound on its head. 

"I'm glad Quirrell took care of his own trap but did he have to make such a mess?" Carya said and held a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up. 

Harry only grimaced and they quickly hurried into the next room. As soon as they went through the door a fire sprang up behind them blocking the way back and another fire sprang up at the opposite door. 

The one behind them was purple and that in front of them was pure black in colour. There were seven bottles standing on that table in the middle of the room. And a piece of parchment lay there as well. 

Carya started to read it aloud:

__

'Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,

Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,

One among us seven will let you move ahead,

Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,

Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.

Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,

To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide

You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;

Second, different are those who stand at either end,

But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,

Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;

Fourth, the second left and the second on the right

Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.'

"Bloody hell, this is about logic. I suck at that," exclaimed Harry. 

"Don't worry, dear brother. I think I can figure it out!" said his sister but the look on her face told that she, too, was worried. 

After what seemed an eternity she shouted "Got it! - The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire -- toward the Stone. Hmm, this is hardly enough for one of us. ... Wait I've an idea. _Engorgio!_". 

The bottle grew and now there was enough potion for both of them. They didn't bother with the other potion because they agreed that they would worry about that later. The potion felt like ice and then they stepped through the fire. On the other side they saw a man standing in front of a mirror. It was whom they had expected to see.

In front of the mirror they'd once found in that abandoned classroom stood their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher - Professor Quirrell. Harry was the first to speak 

"We knew it was you!" he stated calmly. 

This seemed to disturb Quirrell and he asked curiously "How could YOU have known?" 

"Simple," answered Carya, "We saw what you did at that Quidditch match. And the look you gave me was more than clear. And the feeling in the forest ... it was the same one we got on our first day here when we looked at you."

"I see but this time no one will save you. This time I kill you both!" Quirrell shouted and with a snap of his fingers the twins were bound by ropes that appeared out of thin air. 

With that done Quirrell turned around and continued studying the mirror. He got angrier every second because he couldn't figure out what to do with the mirror. He only saw himself holding the stone or giving it to his master. 

Suddenly the air was filed with a cold voice. "Use the boy!" 

"Come here boy! Look in the mirror and tell me what you see." Quirrell ordered and Harry couldn't resist. 

He just walked towards him. Harry's thought centred around how to lie about what he might see in the mirror. By now he had a fairly good idea how the mirror was working. He also knew that Carya was thinking the same as him. 

They knew by now how to control their telepathic abilities. Sometimes they were able to actually read each others thoughts without any effort at all - just like now.

Harry looked into the mirror and saw his smiling reflection. His mirror-self reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone. When the reflection put its hand back into the pocket Harry could feel the stone against his leg. Behind him Carya struggled to get free but her efforts were in vain. 

/_You have to lie to him, brother! Please, do something_!/ Carya told him. 

/_I'm trying, I'm trying_!!/ Harry sent back. 

He began to speak. "I see myself. I'm team-captain and I'm holding the Quidditch Cup," he told Quirrell. 

But the voice spoke again. "He lies ... he lies!" it said, "Let me speak to him... face-to-face...!" 

After that Quirrell began to unwrap his turban. When he turned around both Harry and Carya would have screamed, but they couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face they had ever seen.

It was totally white, with slits for nostrils like a snake and it had glaring crimson eyes.

"Harry Potter..." it whispered. 

Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move. He was starting to fell the panic he had missed all the time. Okay not really missed but he had known that he was way to calm.

"Voldemort," he whispered more to himself than to someone else.

"Yes, see what I have become?" the face said. "Mere shadow and vapour ... I have form only when I can share another's body... but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds.... Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks... you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest... and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own.... Now... why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?" 

So he knew. Suddenly Harry could feel his legs again and stumbled backward towards the spot where Carya was standing. She had finally succeeded in trying to throw of the ropes. She was staring at the creature all wizards and witches feared most in the whole world.

/_Don't let him scare you Harry. We have to get through this. For our sake and that of our friends_!/ his sister told him through their bond.

/_Yeah, I know but how? You've to help me, sister. I can't do this without you_,/ Harry replied.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me... or you'll meet the same end as your parents.... They died begging me for mercy..." 

"LIAR!" Harry and Carya shouted suddenly and in unison. 

Quirrell was walking backward at them, so that Voldemort could still see them. The evil face was now smiling. 

"How touching..." it hissed. "I always value bravery... Yes, my children, your parents were brave.... I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight... but your mother needn't have died... she was trying to protect you.... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

"NEVER!" they both shouted.

The twins weren't fools. They knew they wouldn't stand a chance if they stayed much longer. Sometimes it was better to run. Just like Draco had told them shortly before Christmas. _'The one who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day_.' And the tried to run away. But Quirrell was faster. 

(A/N: Quote above taken from VMorticia's Slytherin Code of Conduct!)

He held Harry by the wrist and a sharp pain seared through Harry's scar. Carya tried to help her brother and pulled at Quirrell's arm ignoring the pain in her chest that made it almost impossible to breathe. Suddenly Quirrell let go of Harry who fell to the floor panting heavily. 

The pain in the boys head and the girls chest lessened -- Harry looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers -- they were blistering before his eyes. 

"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again. 

Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry right back down, landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck -- Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.

"Master, I cannot hold him -- my hands -- my hands!" 

And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms -- Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny. 

"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort. 

At this Carya interrupted again and tried to pull Quirrell off her brother but her attempts were in vain. She was thrown across the room and hit the wall. Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face -- Carya's interference had given him enough space to act.

"AAAARGH!" the creature that once had been a wizard in front of him screamed.

Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain -- his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse. 

Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off. Carya got up again, joined him and hung on Quirrell's other side while the pain in Harry's head and Carya's chest was building. 

He couldn't see a thing and she could hardly breathe -- they could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL THEM! KILL THEM!"

And there were other voices, maybe in their own heads, crying, "Harry! Carya!"

They felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from their grasp, knew all was lost, tried to hold onto each other, each of them grabbing the stone with their right hand and fell into blackness. The feeling of the stone against their palms was the last they remembered.

When Harry woke up he realised that he was in the hospital wing. He then remembered what had happened before he blacked out and frantically searched around the room until he spotted his sister in the bed next to him - sleeping almost peacefully. 

Harry gently woke her up through their bond and when she opened her eyes she could see that Professor Dumbledore had entered the room and walked towards them. Harry immediately asked what had happened to the stone and Dumbledore tried to calm him down. 

"Everything is alright Harry, please calm down or Madam Pomfrey will throw me out." The headmaster said. "I will try and answer your questions if I can."

Carya's chest still hurt, so she decided to listen instead of asking questions.

The headmaster explained that all the presents were from their friends and admirers, that their friends were fine and that they'd been here for three days now. They were also told that it seemed almost too late to rescue the twins. They had used so much energy to stop Quirrell that it had almost killed them. 

Carya couldn't help but shiver at that thought and Harry didn't feel that good either. When Harry again asked what had happened to the Philosopher's stone, he then told them. The stone was destroyed and couldn't be used by anyone ever again. 

The twins were relieved about that but concerned about Dumbledore's friend Nicolas Flamel. They didn't ask about what had happened to Voldemort. The twins just knew that he wasn't gone. That one day he might be back and that there was very little they could do about it right now. Dumbledore told them that everything was fine.

Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt and Carya agreed silently. 

Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell us... things I want to know the truth about...." 

"The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Well... Voldemort said that he only killed our mother because she tried to stop him from killing us. But why would he want to kill us in the first place?"

Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time. "Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day... put it from your mind for now, Harry, Carya. When you are older... I know you hate to hear this... when you are ready, you will know." And the twins knew that arguing was useless now.

"But why couldn't Quirrell touch us?" Carya asked carefully.

"Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realise that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign... to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good." 

"And sir, there's one more thing..." 

"Just the one?" asked Dumbledore curiously. 

"How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?" Harry wanted to know. 

He got his answer right away: "Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone -- find it, but not use it -- would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life."

"It only shows us what we want the most at that time, right? Regardless of it being possible or not? Like us seeing our parents," Carya said. 

"Yes, it only shows your deepest desire and not what can or will be. I used this tiny little thing to hide the stone. My brain surprises even me sometimes.... Now, enough questions. I suggest you make a start on these sweets. Ah! Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit-flavoured one, and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them -- but I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?" 

"Er... I wouldn't try that one," warned Harry. He had the same coloured ones on the ride to Hogwarts and Draco had laughed his head off when Harry tried to get rid of the taste.

Dumbledore only smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth. Then he choked and said, "Alas! Ear wax!"

__

Engorgio = enlarge

Please Read AND Review. I appreciate Reviews, everyone does. It keeps us going. Feed the little writer, yeah? 

Thx ^_^,

Carya


	12. Chapter 12 The End of the Year Feast or...

Disclaimer: Not mine, I only own some of the plot of this fanfic and Carya, some parts might be copied from the book (hopefully not very much. I tried to keep it to a minimum), you might notice that some people got into different houses than in the books by JKR; this has only minor reasons, but I need them to be where they are now ^_^

Author's Notes: The **_Final Chapter_**! Everything worked out in the end. I had one hell of trouble writing this. It was my first Harry Potter fanfiction and I just didn't know how to move in this universe. I know there have been far too many parts taken from the books but I couldn't help it.

If I ever find the time, I'll try and write an 'alternate' version of this with the same plot but less copied parts though. I do hope you still enjoyed this and will continue the second part which will hopefully be a bit more original.

The slight (or more, I don't really know) Mary-Sue-ishness of the twins will have to continue though. As will it with their friends. It's vital for my plot just to warn you. But they aren't perfect students in the long run. The twins do have their flaws like any other human. ^_^

You can find answers to your reviews in the Author's Notes.

This will be continued in: **_Harry Potter - A Different World Book 2_**;

If you want to be notified, leave me a review with your email address.

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Chapter 12 - The End of the Year Feast

After some serious arguing Madam Pomfrey let Hermione, Draco and Ginny into the infirmary. 

"Only five minutes!" the nice, but strict nurse said. 

"Harry! Carya!" they exclaimed. 

Hermione looked ready to fling her arms around him, but Harry was glad she held herself in as his head was still very sore. 

"Oh, Harry, Carya, we were sure you were going to -- Dumbledore was so worried -- ," Ginny nearly started crying. 

"The whole school's talking about it," said Draco. "What really happened?" 

It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumours. Harry told them everything sometimes with the aid of his sister: Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Draco, Ginny and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud. 

"So the Stone's gone?" said Ginny finally. "Flamel's just going to die?"

"That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that -- what was it? -- 'to the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"I always said he was totally nuts," said Draco, looking quite amused at how crazy his headmaster seemed to be. 

"So what happened to you two?" said Harry. 

"Well, I got back all right," said Hermione. "I brought Draco up here -- that took a while -- and then I met Ginny in the corridor and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall -- he already knew -- he just said, they've gone after him, haven't they?' and hurtled off to the third floor."

"D' you think he meant you to do it?" asked Draco. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?" 

"Well, " Hermione exploded, "if he did -- I mean to say that's terrible -- you two could have been killed." 

"No, it isn't," said Harry thoughtfully. "He's a weird man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give us a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...."

"Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right," said Draco proudly. "Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. I bet the food'll be good. The points are all in and Ravenclaw won the house championship, of course -- you missed the last Quidditch match of the year, Gryffindor won against Hufflepuff but didn't have enough points in the end -- they only managed a difference of one hundred and thirty points. That means the Quidditch Cup is ours!" 

At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over. "You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT" she said firmly.

After a good night's sleep, the twins felt nearly back to normal. Carya still was a bit shaky but she would never show it. 

"I want to go to the feast," she told Madam Pomfrey as she straightened their many candy boxes. "I can, can't I?" 

And Harry insisted on going too. They just couldn't miss that. 

"Professor Dumbledore says you are to be allowed to go," she said stiffly, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn't realise how risky feasts could be. "And you have another visitor."

"Oh, good," said Harry. 

"Who is it?" asked Carya.

Hagrid sidled through the door as he spoke. As usual when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He sat down between Harry and Carya, took one look at them, and burst into tears. 

"It's -- all -- my -- ruddy -- fault!" he sobbed, his face in his hands. I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn't know, an' I told him! Yeh could've died! All fer a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be chucked out an' made ter live as a Muggle!"

"Hagrid!" said Harry, shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. 

Carya looked uneasy too. "Hagrid, he'd have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we're talking about, he'd have found out even if you hadn't told him." 

"Yeh could've died!" sobbed Hagrid. "An' don' say the name!" 

"VOLDEMORT!" Harry bellowed, and Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying. "We've met him and I'm calling him by his name." 

"Please cheer up, Hagrid, we saved the Stone, it's gone, he can't use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, we've got loads...," Carya told him.

Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, "That reminds me. I've got yeh a present." 

"It's not a stoat sandwich, is it?" said Harry anxiously, and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle. 

"Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. 'Course, he shoulda sacked me instead -- anyway, got yeh this..." 

It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry took it and opened it curiously. Carya sat beside him and looked over his shoulder. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at them from every page were their mother and father. And there on the last page was a photo with all four of them. Carya was on their fathers arm and Harry on their mothers. They were all smiling and waving.

"Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends, askin' fer photos... knew yeh didn' have any... d'yeh like it?" 

Even Carya who always said that 'Slytherins don't cry' had tears in her eyes and was unable to say anything. Harry couldn't speak either, but Hagrid understood. The twins made their way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night. They had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving them one last check-up, so the Great Hall was already full. 

It was decked out in the Ravenclaw colours of blue and bronze to celebrate Ravenclaw's winning the house cup for the first time in nine years. A huge banner showing the Ravenclaw eagle covered the wall behind the High Table.

When Harry and Carya walked in there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. They slipped into a seat next to Draco and Ginny at the Slytherin table and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him. Harry glanced up and saw Hermione smiling at him from the Ravenclaw table. He instantly felt better. Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year is over!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts.... "Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and

twelve points; in third, Gryffindor, with three hundred and seventy-two; Slytherin has four hundred and seventy- three and Ravenclaw, five hundred and seventy- two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Ravenclaw table and the Gryffindors were applauding very loud too. They were glad that Slytherin hadn't won both championships. Harry could see Ron Weasley smirking at them. It was an unnerving sight. 

"Yes, well done, Ravenclaw," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account." The room went very still. The Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's smiles faded a little. Gryffindor had been ecstatic when they found out that Slytherin hadn't won this year. "Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes...

"First -- to Mr. Draco Malfoy.... for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Slytherin house fifty points." 

Draco looked totally surprised and couldn't believe what he had just heard. He'd always thought Dumbledore would never give a Slytherin house points - now he was proven wrong. Ginny gave him a pat on the back.

"Second -- to Miss Hermione Granger..." Dumbledore continued.

Hermione went crimson in the face; she looked like she was going to melt into the floor. 

"... for the use of pure and calm knowledge when others were in great danger, I award Ravenclaw house fifty points."

Ravenclaw's cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. They were still in the lead but they didn't know what came next. At last there was silence again. 

"Third -- to Miss Carya Potter ... fifty points for cool logic in the face of fire. And last --," The room went deadly quiet. "... to Mr. Harry Potter... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Slytherin house fifty points." said Dumbledore. 

The cheering was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Slytherin now had six hundred and twenty-three points -- exactly one point more than Ravenclaw. They had won the house cup! 

"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of cheering that came from the Slytherin table, "we need a little change of decoration." 

The other houses were merely clapping, they so had wished Slytherin would loose this year but their hopes had been in vain. Slytherin made more noise than the other three houses had done together before. Dumbledore clapped his hands. In an instant, the blue hangings became green and the bronze became silver; the elegant Ravenclaw eagle vanished and a huge Slytherin serpent took its place. 

Snape was shaking Professor Flitwick's hand, with a satisfied smirk. He caught Harry's eye and Harry knew at once that Snape's feelings toward them hadn't changed a bit. This didn't worry Harry. It seemed as though life would be back to normal next year, or as normal as it ever was at Hogwarts. He told Carya about this. 

"It's good to have some things in life that really never change," she said an smiled at her brother and then at Professor Snape. 

The professor was clearly not expecting that and looked away quickly. Carya's smile got even wider and she suddenly felt more relaxed than ever in the whole year.

It was one of the best evenings of Harry's and Carya's life, better than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or hexing obnoxious Gryffindors... they would never, ever forget tonight. Draco was perfectly happy too but he was beginning to worry what his father would say to this. 

Being friends with Ginny, Harry and Carya was already bad enough but a muggle-born Ravenclaw as a friend? And the story with the stone? His father was bound to find out about that. The holidays wouldn't be pretty. Draco just knew there would be trouble. 

They had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. Harry wasn't really worried about his exams as was Draco but they of course wanted to pass. To their great surprise, both he and Draco had gotten good and better marks; Hermione, Carya and Ginny had of course the best grades of the first years. They had hoped that Ron, who was not really that good, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. But as Draco said, you couldn't have everything in life.

Suddenly the wardrobes were empty, the trunks packed and everyone was ready for departure. They all were once again reminded that they were not allowed to do magic over summer and they really had hoped the teachers would forget about that. The children soon boarded the Hogwarts Express. Carya, Harry, Ginny, Draco and Hermione shared a compartment. 

They spent the time playing cards, eating chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. They then changed from their school robes into muggle-style clothing right before the train pulled into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for all the students to get onto the platform but finally everyone was on their way towards their parents or guardians. An old guard made sure that they didn't go through the gate in too large groups because otherwise they might attract unwanted attention and alarm the muggles that something strange was going on. 

"You must come and stay some time this summer, all of you -- I'll send you an owl or better a raven." said Harry smirking slightly and Carya was grinning, too.

"Thanks," said Ginny, "I'll really need something to look forward to. I just hope my family will even notice me after getting sorted into Slytherin last year. You all know how they behaved." 

"If they bother you too much, you can always come over. I doubt that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon would mind. Just call us. I trust you remember how to use a phone? Here's our number by the way," Carya said seriously and handed Draco, Ginny and Hermione a slip of parchment. 

Draco was looking worried but he didn't tell them why. He just said he most likely wouldn't be able to visit. The others just let him be when he walked away and searched for his parents. Carya seemed to know what was bothering him. He was worried about being friends with them and Hermione.

The next to leave was Ginny. Harry, Carya and Hermione could see that only her mother was greeting her warmly. Her father just stood there and her brothers still ignored her completely. 

"Arrgh, how dare they. We have to do something about that, Harry, Hermione. We just have to help her. She's our friend," Carya said looking furious. 

Harry and Hermione just nodded. Harry knew, there was no arguing when his sister was in this kind of mood. Soon Hermione had to go too. She hugged Carya and said goodbye and then hugged Harry a bit tighter whispering her goodbye right into his ear. Carya shot them a knowing look. Harry and Hermione turned crimson and the boy glared daggers at his sister who just stood and smirked. 

Hermione waved one last time and disappeared with her parents just as Uncle Vernon appeared in front of them. 

"Hello you two! Have had a good year?", he asked and when they nodded he continued. "Let's get you home, your Aunt's waiting and Dudley too," he said to them. 

When they finally arrived at Privet Drive No. 4 they were greeted warmly by their aunt and cousin. Carya couldn't help but again think about Ginny. Her and Harry's relatives didn't care about the house they were in. They had told them everything about it but they just didn't care. They only were glad to have their nephew and niece or, in Dudley's case, his cousins back at home. This made the twins more than happy. Now they had two homes. One with their relatives and the other at Hogwarts.

~*~ End Part One ~*~

A/N: This will be continued in: **'A Different World - Book 2'**. The story will be featuring J.K. Rowling's third book **'The Prisoner of Azkaban'**. Don't ask me about swapping the books positions it would spoil the fun and we don't want that, do we?

Please Read AND Review.

Thx ^_^,

Carya


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